Leachate & Petrochemicals

To stop landfill leachate from polluting our water, we need to stop the practice of passing leachate through sewer treatment plants (STPs), which are not equipped to treat it. This is why we are urging DEC to open a rule-making to change leachate disposal practices. Reconfiguring our infrastructure to handle this leachate responsibly is no trivial task. Faced with the complexity and economic costs involved in making this change, we must simultaneously think about our future trash. 

Landfills will discharge toxic leachate for years to come due to the waste already in them. We can’t change the composition of our past garbage, but there is great potential to change our future garbage. There are multiple ways to approach this, including increasing composting, repair and reuse, and reducing consumption. At the same time, we must drastically reduce the amount of toxic chemicals in everyday goods.

Many of us assume that if a product is being sold in stores, its ingredients are safe. Unfortunately, this is not always true. The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), passed in 1976, authorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate chemicals used in manufacturing. (This law does not cover chemicals in food, food packaging, cosmetics,  and drugs.) TSCA has never been effective. When it was adopted, over 40,000 chemicals were grandfathered in without scrutiny. In a review of TSCA’s implementation between 1976 and 2016, researchers found that “EPA regulated fewer than 10 of over 86,000 existing chemicals registered for use in commerce.” TCSA has no default measure requiring companies to collect and disclose information about risks when seeking new chemical approvals. This leaves EPA lacking critical information, and vulnerable to industry meddling.  

Most of the chemicals in question are petrochemicals – those derived from fossil fuels like petroleum or natural gas. Petrochemicals are so pervasive in everyday products that they are nearly impossible to avoid. Scientific studies have repeatedly shown that human health suffers from exposure to petrochemicals in the environment, affecting our immune, reproductive, metabolic, and neurologic systems, and manifesting in cancers, developmental disorders, infertility, and more. These problems affect women, especially women of color, infants, and children especially. Although none of us are free from chemical exposures, communities that neighbor chemical manufacturing facilities experience acute pollution,. These facilities are clustered near areas with more people of color and poor people. 

A shift away from petrochemicals is essential for mitigating climate change, because fossil fuel companies are responding to the trend toward renewable energy sources by ramping up petrochemical production. Removing toxic chemicals from manufacturing requires better chemical review and approval, and it will also require alternative materials. ‘Green chemistry’ is a viable design approach that reduces the potential for pollution at all stages of a chemical’s life cycle, including manufacturing and disposal.  As long as we have a system that freely approves petrochemicals for use in everyday goods, petrochemical plants will keep polluting local communities and emitting greenhouse gases, and our trash will keep producing toxic leachate.