‘Our air is not good enough.’ Kids fight plant burning 2.8K tons of trash every day. – NJ.com

 “We’re among the smallest footprint for unit of energy produced,” Gilman said. “We don’t add to the inventory of greenhouse gases.”

It also avoids filling up a landfill that generates methane and risks contaminating groundwater with toxic leachate, he said. 

But Lopez and other organizers say it’s not fair for Newark to bear the burden of having a local incinerator. The city, which also houses the Newark airport and Port Newark, has long been scarred by other industrial pollutants that contaminated parts of the Passaic River and exposed children to contaminated air. 

“Just in the Ironbound, we have the airport, seaport, Newark energy plant, co-generation plant, a fat-rendering plant, a sewer treatment facility,” Lopez said. “We’re seeing a disproportionate burden on the residents of Newark.”

One in four kids in Newark has asthma. 

And of the 14,000 kids under the age of six who were tested for elevated blood levels in 2016, about a quarter had detectable levels of lead in their blood, according to the Advocates for Children of New Jersey. 

“We think it’s all their responsibility and Covanta should answer for their share of the responsibility,” Lopez added.