[greenyes] Environmental cost of emissions

["Reindl, John" <Reindl@no.address>]

According to an article in the Danish solid waste magazine Internationalt
Affaldsnytt, issue #4, 2004, Norway has implemented new fees for the
discharge of 14 pollutants from solid waste incinerators to reflect the
relative environmental impact of the individual pollutants.

At the top of the list is the fee for dioxins at nearly 2.4 million kroner
(at $0.1616 per kroner, about $385,000) per gram of discharge, followed by
chromium at 582 kroner ($94) a gram, manganese at 96.7kroner, lead at 64.5
kroner, cadmium at 54 kroner, mercury at 28 kroner and hydrogen fluoride at
20.8 kroner per gram. 

The article calculates that for emissions that meet the incineration
directives emissions limits, the total cost of these discharges would be
about 500 kroner ($80) per ton of waste burned, with the largest costs being
from chromium at 175 kroner per ton of waste incinerated, hydrogen fluoride
at 125 kroner, lead at 77 kroner and particulates at 35 kroner per ton of
waste burned. 

Using a similar approach, several European countries have also calculated
the environmental costs of other methods of handling solid waste, and to
identify which pollutants to focus on. 

John Reindl, Recycling Manager
Dane County, WI