A coalition of environmentalists and community groups is asking a federal court to order stronger pollution standards for trash incinerators — which they say would be critical to protecting public health in Newark and communities around New Jersey, the Hudson Valley and Long Island.
The action focuses on new air pollution standards for municipal solid waste incinerators adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in March. The new rules are more stringent than their predecessors, but fall short of what the EPA had originally proposed under the Biden administration.
The environmental nonprofits Earthjustice and Environmental Integrity Project, working on behalf of advocacy groups including the Newark-based Ironbound Community Corporation, are asking a federal appeals court to review the EPA’s new incinerator pollution rules. They argue the new rules don’t meet federal Clean Air Act requirements, and they say modern pollution controls can meet tougher standards.
“These incinerators are burning garbage and releasing poisons that cause cancer and can harm children’s development,” Jonathan Smith, an Earthjustice attorney, said in a statement. “Every day that the agency delays strong standards, families in places like Newark, South Baltimore, and across Florida pay the price with their health because corporations want to save some money instead of doing right for the surrounding communities.”
The groups filed the lawsuit on Monday. An EPA spokesperson said the agency does not comment on litigation.
Environmentalists and community activists around the country have long fought incinerators, arguing they are harmful to public health. There are 10 incinerators in New York, including six scattered across the Hudson Valley and Long Island. There are four incinerators currently operating in New Jersey, including the Reworld Essex facility in Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood that has been heavily criticized for contributing to air pollution in a neighborhood already overburdened by heavy industry, power plants and truck traffic.
Reworld Essex burns almost 1 million tons of waste each year, according to Reworld. It takes in trash from New York City and roughly two dozen communities around New Jersey. The facility turns the energy generated from that burning into 66 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 40,000 homes.
The Ironbound Community Corporation has fought the facility for decades, from trying to block its construction to trying to have it shut down. Alejandra Torres, the group’s assistant director of advocacy and organizing, said the Newark incinerator is New Jersey’s second-largest polluter for arsenic, hydrogen chloride, mercury and nitrogen oxide.
“ We know that this incinerator is incredibly deadly to the Ironbound, to Newark, to New Jersey,” Torres said.
The Newark incinerator is a major contributor to poor air quality in the Ironbound. Locals are familiar with rank scents and trouble breathing.
“ People can smell the bad air. And now that it's getting hotter, the whiffs of gross smells are, you know, wafting through the streets,” Torres said. “It makes it harder for folks to be outside, for kids to play outside.”
The incinerator is Essex County’s single-largest source of nitrogen oxide, a key ingredient in smog formation. Emissions from Reworld Essex mix with pollution from nearby factories, power plants and a sewage treatment plant. Heavy trucks constantly move through the Ironbound, serving warehouses and Port Newark. Planes fly low over the neighborhood, which is under the flight path for Newark Airport.
Roughly a third of residential trash generated in New York City in 2024 wound up burning in incinerators, according to data tracked by the Brooklyn and Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Boards. All of Manhattan’s residential trash went to incinerators that year, with 66% of it being burned at the Newark facility.
Reworld deferred to the Waste-To-Energy Association for comment. That trade group lobbies for incinerators around the country, and has filed its own petition to change the new EPA standards to be more business-friendly.
Thomas Hogan, the group’s president, said in a statement that member facilities already operate below current limits. He said the new rule as written sets “rigorous requirements our members are committed to meeting,” but that the association was also seeking judicial relief from a “narrow set of technical” requirements it doesn’t think are realistic for members or wouldn’t produce the expected environmental benefit.
“Waste-to-energy facilities serve a real public function: diverting millions of tons of material from landfills, reducing methane emissions and generating reliable electricity,” Hogan said in the statement. “Getting this rule right for public health, the environment, and the long-term viability of this infrastructure is a goal we share with regulators and the communities our members serve.”
