The Salisbury Municipal Incinerator was a waste management system built for handling municipal waste in

Salisbury, Maryland Salisbury () is a city in and the county seat of Wicomico County, Maryland, Wicomico County, Maryland, United States, and the largest city in Eastern Shore of Maryland, the state's Eastern Shore region. The population was 33,050 at the 2020 United ...

, United States. It burned trash at high temperatures, releasing toxic gasses into the atmosphere and the community. In response to increased awareness of environmental impacts, the city demolished the Incinerator and now uses other modern

waste management Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring ...

methods.

History

The Salisbury Municipal Incinerator construction project started in 1949 and was estimated to be fully completed by September 1950. The Incinerator was a three-story structure that cost an estimated $261,000 to build. The project was commissioned due to the need for the city of

to have a method for city-wide waste management. The city incinerator later closed down circa the 1960s. There were initial talks of turning it into a museum. Still, the site was later demolished, and the City of Salisbury Police Department was built there. The site was located on Delaware Avenue near the intersection with Route 50.

Environmental factors caused by incinerators

After its closure,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

state law required 23 counties to conform to a waste management plan to handle city waste better. Salisbury's solution for this state mandate was to build a

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...

to handle city waste. The Environmental Service Commission spearheaded the project. The landfill project, though completed, faced several issues due to heavy rainfall and flooding, so it had to be closed until after the inclement weather. In November 1992, the Salisbury City Council was quoted an estimated cost of $16 million - $20 million to build a more extensive and efficient landfill. Waste materials dumped into landfills release toxic gasses such as

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Eart ...

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous was ...

sulfides Sulfide (British English also sulphide) is an inorganic anion of sulfur with the chemical formula S2− or a compound containing one or more S2− ions. Solutions of sulfide salts are corrosive. ''Sulfide'' also refers to chemical compounds la ...

, and

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...

, which can contribute to

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

. In 1963, the clean air act initiated the development of a national program to reduce air pollution and protect people's public health and welfare. The 1967 Clean Air Act permitted the enforcement of regulations that impacted waste management services like the Salisbury Municipal incinerator.

Present day

The Wicomico County, Maryland Solid Waste Division is now a complex that houses buildings of various functions to enable equipment storage and a physical workplace for employees. Sixty employees work at the landfill to run its day-to-day operations, including landfill, dredging operations, and recycling. To efficiently manage daily operations, the workers utilize 85 pieces of equipment to complete daily tasks. For utmost efficiency, some of the work is contracted out when necessary. In partnership with Ingenco Wholesale Power LLC (no
Archaea Energy)
the Wicomico Solid Waste Division manages its landfill methane emissions by converting it to

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

to heat homes and businesses.

References

{{coord missing, Maryland Incinerators Waste management in the United States Buildings and structures in Maryland Landfills Methane Renewable energy Recycling Salisbury, Maryland