Waste Management Issues in Boston, Massachusetts

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QUESTION
Waste Management Issues in Boston, Massachusetts
Creating a sustainable environment that meets the current generation’s needs while also upholding that of the future populations is the primary goal of most organizations and governmental entities (Evans, 2020). Natural resources ought to be protected given the increased number of technological innovations and manufacturing industries that threaten our biodiversity. Hence, failure to regulate operations threatening the environment is a means to an end since, eventually, it will lead to detrimental issues that involve not only individual health and well-being but also food security. By focusing on Boston, this paper aims to evaluate what the research was all about, what I learned, and how it connects to the course’s concepts.
What My Research was all About
            My research in Boston, a city located in Massachusetts, was tailored towards finding an environmental issue it was greatly affected by. In Boston, one environmental issue that emerged to be significant was the waste management problem, which I had to look into further by visiting various waste to energy plants and dumpsites. The dump, which I got easy access to, was one at Covanta energy transfer stations, a private entity charged with garbage collection and disposal, while the waste to energy plant that I visited during my stay was the incinerator at Saugus, which is actually considered one of the oldest. Saugus is a town outside Boston; however, my visit to it was warranted by the fact that Boston burns and buries its waste in landfills outside its borders.
What I learned
During my research, I learned that most waste in Boston produced by Businesses and residents is tasked to private entities. A study contributed by Caldwell (2021) states that Boston’s businesses and residential homes jointly produce an average of 110,000 tons of waste annually. This waste is then collected around Boston by private contracted entities like capital waste. Thus, through the private contractors, the produced garbage is compiled and transported to pick-up stations where it is sorted and finally transported for incineration. One such pick-up station that receives waste is the Covanta energy transfer station, which ensures that the assigned waste is confined correctly and transferred to power plants at Haverhill or Saugus.
At the power plant, the process of incineration involves well-defined strategic actions that aim to disintegrate the solid wastes while generating clean energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This well-versed process begins with dumping the solid wastes into a tip floor, which redirects the entire load into a holding pit. A crane simultaneously scoops the waste from the pit and places it in an inclined trough that enables the waste’s easy movement into a boiler. The boiler, which burns at an extensive heat, approximately 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, as stated by Caldwell (2021), disintegrates the combustible material so rapidly that it produces steam good enough to power an electricity turbine. Consequently, according to Caldwell (2021), the steam produced is too great that it can propel the turbine to power about 31,000 residential houses for a whole year.
As much as most of the steam is used to propel the electricity turbines, a significant amount of it can also escape the facility. With this in mind, the incineration facilities have taken considerable steps toward ensuring that the unrestrained steam has minimal impacts on the environment. One significant way that has been adopted to reduce the effects is carbon injection, a process that ensures a complete neutralization of heavy metals like lead, zinc, arsenic, and chromium. Also, through vacuum cleaner filter-like bags, the power plants greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by getting to trap any relevant harmful substances posing a significant threat.
Despite the use of carbon injection and vacuum cleaner filter-like bags, many Boston residents still have doubts as to whether their government is doing enough to manage its wastes. Thereon, this gave rise to the formation of environmental programs by environmentalists who consistently challenge the existent process of incineration. The ‘Zero Waste Boston initiative’ is an example of such a program championed to speak against incineration. Thus, according to Bazarsky (2021), it aims to promote waste management through community engagement and education of people on the importance of avoiding waste; hence, its mantra of reducing, reusing, and recycling.
How My Research Connects to the Course Concepts
By investigating waste management in Boston, its due process gave rise to the notion of pollution, a concept that has been inherently covered through the course. Pollution, an environmental issue, emancipates from the process of incineration and the general effects it has towards the surrounding community’s biodiversity. A good instance of pollution that I found thrilling was the one caused by the Saugus incineration facility, located at Saugus, a marginalized community consisting of the working class and people of color. In the community, pollution by the power plant is experienced not only through its release of toxic gases but also through the burying of some of the remaining non-combustible ash in landfills. Pollans 2017 relates the amount of buried ash to be about 15-25% of the original waste’s weight, while Cascino and Alves (2022) associate the amount of incineration released carbon to be about 393 kilotons. Consequently, among Saugus residents, these toxic wastes have contributed to their health complications through lung cancer and heart diseases.
Conclusion
In summary, this paper has evaluated what the research was all about, what I learned, and how it connects to the course’s concepts. My research was all about waste management in Boston, from which I learned that waste management follows a due process that aims to convert solid wastes into energy. Finally, waste management is connected to the concept of pollution, which emerged from the burying of non-combustible ash and the release of carbon into the atmosphere.

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