Pat Costner (born 1 November 1940) [1] is an American scientist and environmentalist. She is a founder and director of the group Save the Ozarks (StO). She worked for a long time as an advocacy scientist for Greenpeace and International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN). [2] [3]
Born in 1940, Pat Costner has lived in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, since the 1970s. In March 1991, arsonists set fire to her home in an incident later cited as an example of violence against environmental activists in The War Against the Greens , a study on the Wise Use movement and anti-environmental violence in the United States. [2] Sheila O’Donnell, a private investigator hired by Greenpeace, described the event as “a professional hit,” implying it was targeted rather than random. Costner had lived in the house for over 20 years and raised her children there. She rebuilt her home after the fire and continued to reside there. [3]
Costner's environmental advocacy began in 1986 with Greenpeace. Her early experience in the chemical industry, including roles at Shell Oil and Arapaho Chemicals, provided her with the technical expertise to critique harmful industry practices. [3] As a senior scientist at Greenpeace, she became known for her investigations and reports on toxic contamination, especially concerning dioxins. In particular, Costner played a significant role in highlighting dioxin contamination in Mossville, Louisiana, a predominantly African American community. Her findings revealed dioxin levels in the environment and food sources that significantly exceeded safe limits, challenging official reports. [4]
In addition to her work with Greenpeace, Costner actively engaged in policy discussions on environmental hazards. She presented research on persistent organic pollutants and dioxins at National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) hearings in 2000 [5] and provided comments on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's dioxin reassessment. Her expertise extended to publishing influential works, including We All Live Downstream, which addresses water pollution and toxic waste issues; Playing with Fire, on hazardous waste incineration; and Incineration and Human Health, summarizing the health impacts of waste incineration. [6] [7] [8]
After her career at Greenpeace, Costner founded Owltree Environmental Consulting, where she collaborated with IPEN on various environmental initiatives. In 2013, she founded Save the Ozarks (StO), originally a single-issue advocacy group opposing a proposed high-voltage transmission line by Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) that would extend from Bentonville to a substation near the Kings River in Carroll County. [9] Costner had previously supported local activists in their campaign against herbicide spraying along powerline corridors on public and private lands by Carroll Electric Cooperative in the Ozarks. [10]
In 1989, she criticized the plan to build an incinerator in Honduras near the rainforest at Gracias a Dios. [11] In 2004, Costner lent her expertise to Czech environmental activists opposing a proposed waste incinerator in Lysá nad Labem. [12] In 2005, she authored Estimating Releases and Prioritizing Sources in the Context of the Stockholm Convention, a study she presented at the 2007 Stockholm Convention (COP 2). [7] This study significantly influenced the revision of dioxin emission factors, especially from open burning sources, which were previously overestimated compared to industrial sources such as waste incineration. [13]
Between 2006 and 2013, Costner represented IPEN in discussions on the Dioxin Toolkit, [14] a resource under the Stockholm Convention for estimating dioxin emissions. Her contributions helped shape the new Dioxin Toolkit, adopted at COP 6 of the Stockholm Convention. [15] [16] Her work in this area has led one journalist to describe her as “a key player in the development of the Stockholm Convention on POPs.” [17]
Hazardous waste is waste that must be handled properly to avoid damaging human health or the environment. Waste can be hazardous because it is toxic, reacts violently with other chemicals, or is corrosive, among other traits. As of 2022, humanity produces 300-500 million metric tons of hazardous waste annually. Some common examples are electronics, batteries, and paints. An important aspect of managing hazardous waste is safe disposal. Hazardous waste can be stored in hazardous waste landfills, burned, or recycled into something new. Managing hazardous waste is important to achieve worldwide sustainability. Hazardous waste is regulated on national scale by national governments as well as on an international scale by the United Nations (UN) and international treaties.
Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDDs), or simply dioxins, are a group of long-lived polyhalogenated organic compounds that are primarily anthropogenic, and contribute toxic, persistent organic pollution in the environment.
Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of substances contained in waste materials. Industrial plants for waste incineration are commonly referred to as waste-to-energy facilities. Incineration and other high-temperature waste treatment systems are described as "thermal treatment". Incineration of waste materials converts the waste into ash, flue gas and heat. The ash is mostly formed by the inorganic constituents of the waste and may take the form of solid lumps or particulates carried by the flue gas. The flue gases must be cleaned of gaseous and particulate pollutants before they are dispersed into the atmosphere. In some cases, the heat that is generated by incineration can be used to generate electric power.
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are organic compounds that are resistant to degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes. They are toxic and adversely affect human health and the environment around the world. Because they can be transported by wind and water, most POPs generated in one country can and do affect people and wildlife far from where they are used and released.
The International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) is a global network of NGOs dedicated to the common aim of eliminating pollutants, such as lead in paint, mercury and lead in the environment, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), endocrine disrupting chemicals, and other toxics.
Waste-to-energy (WtE) or energy-from-waste (EfW) refers to a series of processes designed to convert waste materials into usable forms of energy, typically electricity or heat. As a form of energy recovery, WtE plays a crucial role in both waste management and sustainable energy production by reducing the volume of waste in landfills and providing an alternative energy source.
South East London Combined Heat and Power, better known as SELCHP, is a major energy from waste incineration plant in Bermondsey, London. It was designed to generate both heat and electricity. The plant can generate up to 35 MegaWatts of power using a steam turbine in electricity only mode. It can incinerate up to 420,000 tonnes per year of municipal solid waste.
EcoPark is a waste-to-energy plant which burns waste from several London boroughs to provide electricity for the National Grid. It is located on the River Lee Navigation and bordered by the North Circular Road, in Edmonton in the London Borough of Enfield. It is also known as Edmonton EcoPark.
The Enviro-Tech IncineratorComplex was a waste incinerator located in Ayase, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan,. It began operation on March 3, 1980 and was closed on April 30, 2001. The incinerator was located near Naval Air Facility Atsugi, a base manned partly by several thousand United States Navy members and their families.
Terri Swearingen is a nurse from the state of Ohio.
Polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) are a family of organic compounds with one or several of the hydrogens in the dibenzofuran structure replaced by chlorines. For example, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzofuran (TCDF) has chlorine atoms substituted for each of the hydrogens on the number 2, 3, 7, and 8 carbons. Polychlorinated dibenzofurans with chlorines at least in positions 2,3,7 and 8 are much more toxic than the parent compound dibenzofurane, with properties and chemical structures similar to polychlorinated dibenzodioxins. These groups together are often inaccurately called dioxins. They are known developmental toxicants, and suspected human carcinogens. PCDFs tend to co-occur with polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDDs). PCDFs can be formed by pyrolysis or incineration at temperatures below 1200 °C of chlorine containing products, such as PVC, PCBs, and other organochlorides, or of non-chlorine containing products in the presence of chlorine donors. Dibenzofurans are known persistent organic pollutants (POP), classified among the dirty dozen in the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
Tire-derived fuel (TDF) is composed of shredded scrap tires. Tires may be mixed with coal or other fuels, such as wood or chemical wastes, to be burned in concrete kilns, power plants, or paper mills. An EPA test program concluded that, with the exception of zinc emissions, potential emissions from TDF are not expected to be very much different from other conventional fossil fuels, as long as combustion occurs in a well-designed, well-operated and well-maintained combustion device.
Stericycle, Inc. is a compliance company that specializes in collecting and disposing regulated medical waste, such as medical waste and sharps, pharmaceuticals, hazardous waste, and providing services for recalled and expired goods. It also provides related education and training services, and patient communication services. The company was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Bannockburn, Illinois, with many more bases of operation around the world, including Medical waste incinerators in Utah and North Carolina.
Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds (DLCs) are a group of chemical compounds that are persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the environment. They are mostly by-products of burning or various industrial processes or, in the case of dioxin-like PCBs and PBBs, unwanted minor components of intentionally produced mixtures.
Olga Speranskaya is a Russian scientist and environmentalist. She has been the Director of the Chemical Safety Program at the Eco-Accord Center for Environment and Sustainable Development in Moscow since 1997 and holds a master's degree in Geophysics from Moscow State University, and a doctorate in Environmental physics from the Russian Academy of Sciences. From 2010 to 2018, she was a co-chair of the International POPs Elimination Network. Speranskaya has led many campaigns against the use of organic pollutants, fought to ban the burial and transport of hazardous chemicals, and provided information to government decision-makers for policy changes in many different countries.
The environmental impact of paper are significant, which has led to changes in industry and behaviour at both business and personal levels. With the use of modern technology such as the printing press and the highly mechanized harvesting of wood, disposable paper became a relatively cheap commodity, which led to a high level of consumption and waste. The rise in global environmental issues such as air and water pollution, climate change, overflowing landfills and clearcutting have all lead to increased government regulations. There is now a trend towards sustainability in the pulp and paper industry as it moves to reduce clear cutting, water use, greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel consumption and clean up its influence on local water supplies and air pollution.
The triangle of death is an area approximately 25 km northeast of the city of Naples in the Province of Naples, Campania, Italy, that comprises the comuni of Acerra, Nola and Marigliano. This area contains the largest illegal waste dump in Europe due to a waste management crisis in the 1990s and 2000s.
The Harrisburg Incinerator, now under private operation as Susquehanna Resource Management Complex (SRMC), is a waste-to-energy incinerator in South Harrisburg, Pennsylvania built and operated by the city from 1972 to 2003, which was an ongoing source of contention due to toxic air emissions and unforeseen costs which greatly contributed to the bankruptcy of the city. Since December 23, 2013, it is now owned by Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority (LCSWMA) and operated by Reworld.
Jindřich Petrlík is a Czech scientist and environmentalist. He is a co-founder and board member of the Czech NGO Arnika, program manager of its Toxics and Waste Programme.
Arnika is a Czech non-governmental organization (NGO) established on 29 September 2001, and officially registered as a civic association. It focuses on public participation, biodiversity protection, and eliminating toxic substances and waste.
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