NEW JERSEY’S DIRTY SECRET

The report details the environmental and public health impacts of waste incinerators in New Jersey, highlighting their disproportionate location in overburdened communities of color and low-income areas. It documents significant air permit violations and the receipt of millions in clean energy subsidies despite high emissions. The authors propose a shift toward a zero-waste hierarchy—emphasizing redesign, reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting—and recommend that New Jersey ban new incinerators and decommission existing ones by 2030.

• Between 2015 and 2018, New Jersey's five municipal solid waste incinerators collectively emitted nearly 7 million tons of greenhouse gases and over 10,000 tons of air pollution.
• New Jersey's incinerators have frequently violated air permits, with over 1,700 violations since June 2004, some involving emissions two to eight times above the permitted limits.
• Waste incinerators in New Jersey are predominantly located in environmental justice communities, which are often low-income communities of color that face cumulative pollution impacts and higher vulnerabilities to respiratory infections like COVID-19.
• Despite failing to meet environmental standards and violating permits, New Jersey incinerators have received over $30 million in ratepayer-funded subsidies through the State's Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) program since 2004.
• Incineration is described as one of the most expensive and emission-intensive methods of electricity generation in the U.S., potentially emitting significantly more lead, mercury, and greenhouse gases per unit of energy than coal plants.
• Zero-waste strategies are identified as superior alternatives to incineration, offering higher job creation rates; for example, recycling creates 10–25 times more jobs and material reuse up to 296 times more jobs than landfilling or incineration per ton.

APA

Smith, J., Jennings, J., Tejada, V. B., Stevens, R., Forrest, B., Wood, J., Herrera, L., Gill-Frerking, H., Tavormina, T., & Ung-Kono, V. (n.d.). NEW JERSEY’S DIRTY SECRET. Earthjustice. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/nj-incinerator-report_earthjustice-2021-02.pdf

Chicago

Smith, Jonathan, Jasmine Jennings, Victoria Bogdan Tejada, Rachel Stevens, Brittany Forrest, Justin Wood, Leslie Herrera, et al. NEW JERSEY’S DIRTY SECRET. Earthjustice, n.d. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/nj-incinerator-report_earthjustice-2021-02.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{smithndnew, author = {Smith, Jonathan and Jennings, Jasmine and Tejada, Victoria Bogdan and Stevens, Rachel and Forrest, Brittany and Wood, Justin and Herrera, Leslie and Gill-Frerking, Heather and Tavormina, Taylor and Ung-Kono, Veronica}, title = {{NEW JERSEY’S DIRTY SECRET}}, institution = {Earthjustice}, url = {https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/nj-incinerator-report_earthjustice-2021-02.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }