With the exception of municipal solid waste incinerators, facility-specific emissions were available only for 1995.
Still, incinerators are by far the most expensive source of electricity, with a projected capital cost of $8,232 per kilowatt for new waste incinerator facilities, according to the EIA's 2010 annual energy outlook report.
The anthropogenic occurrence of Hg from local sources can create hotspots as is the case of fossil-fuel fired power plants and recently biocombustible, mining (cinnabar, gold, polymetallic ores), processing of non-ferrous metals, cement plants, municipal and medical waste incinerators, chlor-alkali facilities.
The report cited controls on mercury emissions from medical and municipal waste incinerators, chlor-alkali facilities, and other sources as the main reason for decreases in mercury in the region.
The U.S. EPA average emission level for this facility type was lower than solid waste incinerators and some other facility types (Table 1).
Hazardous waste incinerators just incinerate.
Medical waste incinerators were the most common facility within 5 km (32% of cases, 33% of controls).
Medical waste incinerators and coal-fired electric generating facilities were the most common dioxin-emitting facilities and accounted for the greatest number of facility-residence pairs.
By all accounts, one of the most important and difficult topics to settle was how to control air emissions of mercury from facilities such as waste incinerators, smelters, and coal-fired power plants.
Hazardous waste incinerators (HWIs) differ substantially from thermal power facilities, since instead of maximizing energy production with the minimum amount of fuel, they aim at maximizing throughput.
Amid the new demand for hazardous waste disposal, Congress carved out regulations for specific types of facilities so that hazardous waste incinerators and cement kilns burning hazardous waste would each have their own emissions standards.
