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The article discusses the reasons why the Pennsylvania government cannot mandate the use of waste incineration as an alternative source of energy under the state's renewable portfolio standard (RPS), particularly due to its violation of the residents' constitutional right to a clean environment. Other topics include the pollutants created by incineration like dioxins, lead and mercury, and the need to revoke municipal solid waste's (MSW) designation as alternative energy source.

Europeanisation research into social movements has focused on the emergence of political opportunity structures at the supranational level. This paper examines how movement actors are exploiting shifts in domestic opportunity structures caused by EU policy. Empirical evidence is drawn from qualitative interview data and document analysis on high profile anti-incinerator campaigns in France. Surprisingly, European legislation on waste incineration has not significantly influenced domestic opportunities. It is, however, revealed that EU policy on biodiversity proved decisive for understanding shifts in opportunity structures, and ultimately their role in contributing to movement campaigns in France. Several important lessons are discussed for future Europeanisation research into social movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an industrial ecological insight into local waste management in Pielinen Karelia, Finland. There local system is experiencing major changes because of tightening EC waste legislation including the directives on waste incineration (2000/76/EC) and landfilling of wastes (1999/31/EC). Small local landfills are closing and most of municipal wastes will be transported 120–180 km to large-scale waste management centre in Kuopio. The paper applies three industrial ecosystem indicators, based on environmental, economic and employment impacts of different waste management technologies. Environmental indicator is CO2 equivalent emission, economic indicator is based on costs and revenues of waste management, and social (i.e. employment) indicator includes new jobs generated. The results indicate that waste incineration option in forthcoming regional cooperation could create emission savings up to 117–394 kg CO2 eqv./ton of municipal waste when compared to local landfilling. As economic impacts, new regional cooperation and long-distance transportations will increase the costs from previous 45.6–55.2 €/ton in local landfilling to 97.4 €/ton in regional landfilling and 120.8–126.9 €/ton in regional REF-III incineration. In terms of employment, the new cooperation could create 2–6.5 new jobs. The regional cooperation results to rising operational costs but avoids investments to new local infrastructure. It also creates significant emission savings, maintains current employment in waste handling and creates new jobs in long-distance transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Waste generation and waste disposal are issues that are becoming increasingly prominent in the environmental arena both from a policy perspective and in the context of delinking analysis. Waste generation is still increasing proportionally with income, and economic and environmental costs associated to landfilling are also increasing. Thus, the need of accelerating the eventual delinking process by the introduction of policies at all stages of waste production and disposal. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of waste generation, incineration, recycling and landfill dynamics based on panel data for the EU25, to assess the effects of different drivers (economic, structural, policies) and the eventual heterogeneity on such evidence between western and eastern EU countries. We show that for waste generation there is still no absolute delinking trend, although elasticity to income drivers appears lower than in the past. Landfill and other policy effects do not seem to provide backward incentives for waste prevention. Regarding landfill and incineration, the two trends, as expected, are respectively decreasing and increasing, with policy effects providing a strong driver. It demonstrates the effectiveness of policy even in this early stage of policy implementation. This is essential for an ex post evaluation of existing landfill and incineration directives. Nevertheless, it signals the risk of widening gaps between early adopters and countries which postpone ratification and implementation. It is also worth noting that EU15 and EU10 groups of countries show some different waste trends and driving forces of waste generation and landfill diversion hen analysed separately. We may conclude that although complete delinking is far from being achieved – especially for waste generation, there are some positive signals, and signs of a quite significant role of the EU waste policies implemented in the late 1990s and early 2000s. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses a civil case before the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice, BGH) of Germany, decided on November 22, 2012, which involved payment terms for trash delivered to an incineration facility. The court considered whether contract provisions regarding the prorating of fees for lesser volumes utilized were void under the German law of obligations.

Introduces articles on environmental law issues in Europe. Impact of constitutional change on law and policy; Legal and policy implications of animal welfare protocol in Economic Community Treaty among European Union countries; Waste incineration provisions in European environmental law.

Discusses the waste incineration provisions in European environmental law. Individual rights conferred by Economic Community (EC) law related to incineration plants; European Court of Justice case-law remedies in EC environmental law; Interpretation of national environmental law in context of relevant EC directives.