Incinerator + Waste Management
Immediate Closure of Montgomery County’s Aging Trash Incinerator Demanded Following Disclosure of Additional Dioxin Leak
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 26, 2026
Media Contact:
Lauren Greenberger
Vice President, Sugarloaf Citizens Association
lgreenberger@hotmail.com
Immediate Closure of Montgomery County’s Aging Trash Incinerator Demanded Following Disclosure of Additional Dioxin Leak
DICKERSON, Md.— Following our February 20, 2026, press release on the topic, Sugarloaf Citizens Association received notification that a second and more hazardous dioxin and furan discharge occurred at the Montgomery County waste incinerator in Dickerson, MD.
The Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection has released two statements about this leak: Feb 20, 2026 and Dec 17, 2025. The most recent test results show Unit 3 total dioxins and furans discharged averaged 54.8 ng/dscm at 7% oxygen, exceeding the limit of 30 ng/dscm at 7% oxygen.
This discharge is nearly double the allowable limit and 30 times greater than the average annual stack test results (2.6ng/dscm) for the past 3 years, according to data reported on the County website. There are no established safe limits for dioxin emissions. We are not aware of any similar testing done yet on the third operating boiler, Unit 1.
The incinerator, operated by Reworld, is currently the endpoint for all the county’s non-recyclable solid waste.
Given this updated and highly concerning test result, Sugarloaf Citizen Association urgently calls on Montgomery County leadership to act:
We ask the County Executive and his Department of Environmental Protection for immediate closure of the waste incinerator as a response to this emergency and temporarily haul the county’s trash by truck to an interim landfill site.
We ask Montgomery County Council members to approve the County Executive’s FY27 budget that will include permanently shuttering the incinerator, ending toxic ash dumping on a community in Virginia, hauling what we can't recycle to a well-vetted landfill, and initiating robust food-scrap composting, and other well-studied waste reduction strategies.
Dioxin Leak at Dickerson Incinerator Prompts Call for Closure
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 20, 2026
Media Contact:
Lauren Greenberger
Vice President, Sugarloaf Citizens Association
lgreenberger@hotmail.com
Dioxin Leak Adds Urgency to Shuttering Montgomery County’s Aging Trash Incinerator
DICKERSON, Md. — Alarmed by reports of a recent massive dioxin leak at the aging Montgomery County trash incinerator in Dickerson, MD, Sugarloaf Citizens Association (SCA) urges the Montgomery County Council to move forward expeditiously with plans to end trash burning and haul the county’s waste to vetted landfills outside the County.
The incinerator, operated by Reworld, is currently the endpoint for all the county’s non-recyclable solid waste.
In November 2025, a report by the county’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) revealed that the incinerator was emitting nearly double the permitted limit—and 21 times more dioxin and furans than the last test in 2024. There is no safe emissions limit established for these toxic chemicals.
The dioxin leak from the 30-year-old incinerator comes amid longstanding concerns about health hazards to the community and local agriculture associated with trash incineration, which also produces other toxic chemical emissions such as mercury, sulfur dioxide, arsenic, beryllium, lead, nitrogen oxides and fine particulate matter into the region’s air.
“Further delay by DEP or the County Council is unacceptable,” says Lauren Greenberger, SCA vice president. “We have advocated for an alternative to incineration for more than a decade, given the incinerator’s profile as the worst single source of air pollution and greenhouse gases in Montgomery County. This recent leak is yet more evidence that this aging facility is a continuing dire public health threat.”
Reworld estimated in 2025 that it would cost from $50 million to $100 million to keep the facility operating safely and efficiently for another 7 to 10 years. More recently, DEP cited potential costs as high as $365 million in that timeframe. Most trash incinerators are decommissioned after approximately 22 to 27 years of use.
Read Article: Maryland county may spend $57 million on incinerator it wants to close
Updated June 4, 2025
In case you missed it, an article published in The Washington Post on Monday June 2 covers machinations around the Dickerson incinerator. SCA is quoted. Read the full article: Maryland county may spend $57 million on incinerator it wants to close. For those who may not have access to The Washington Post, click here to read a PDF of the full article.
Trash Burning No Longer Considered “Renewable Energy” in Maryland
April 10, 2025
Maryland lawmakers enacted legislation on April 7 ending Maryland’s classification of trash incineration as “renewable energy.”
It’s been considered that since 2011, as part of the state’s “renewable portfolio standard” program. As such, the energy generated in “waste-to-energy” (or “refuse-derived fuel) facilities, such as the one in Dickerson, was treated the same as energy produced by solar and wind facilities. That included subsidies to help promote renewable energy sources.
Thus, incinerators effectively took money out of the pockets of solar, wind and other clean energy companies—even as incinerators polluted the air and generated greenhouse gases. Since 2011, Maryland consumers have supported the Dickerson incinerator to the tune of around $30 million.
The new law is a huge win for environmental, civic and energy justice groups—includingSCA—which have been pushing this outcome for years.
Maryland is now the second state, after California, to delete trash incineration from its renewable energy portfolio.
“It’s about time,” said Lauren Greenberger, SCA’s vice president and main advocate on the issue. “It’s been such a ‘waste’ of money—pun intended—and has helped prop up the remaining incinerators in the state, which are too old, inefficient, and produce dirty energy.”
Added Jennifer Kunze, Maryland Program Director with Clean Water Action: “This action will help support the development of zero waste infrastructure by making it easier for composting, reuse and recycling, and other healthier solid waste management practices to compete without fighting uphill against state subsidies supporting the worst solid waste management option.”
County Enhances Food Compost Effort
November 15, 2024
This month, Montgomery County launched the latest phase of its initiative to reduce food waste by encouraging businesses and residents to compost instead of discarding food scraps in the trash. (See a short video later in this article.)
Food scraps account for about one-quarter of the county's total trash volume. In 2023, the county estimates that approximately 90,000 tons of food waste ended up in the trash, most of which was incinerated at the county's facility in Dickerson.
Composting food scraps is an environmentally beneficial practice (and thus, a no-brainer), but it requires significant changes in behavior for households and businesses, as well as adaptations to the county’s waste management systems. The county has been running a pilot composting program for several years and now plans to increase participation and enhance its infrastructure.
Part of this effort includes allowing residents to “recycle” food scraps at the curbside, just as they do with glass, plastic, paper, and cardboard. The collected scraps would be transported to a central location, likely the Dickerson yard trim compost facility.
Click “Read More” to go to the full article and watch a short YouTube video of the County’s recent ceremony on the composting initiative.
County Deliberates on Trash Overhaul Plans
Your voice matters. The County Council is scheduled to vote on November 10 on whether or not to close the aging Dickerson trash incinerator. Please urge the Council to keep the closure process moving and end trash burning in Dickerson for good. Please CLICK HERE and support Option 2: Close the Incinerator and Expand Composting.
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Updated October 23, 2026
On October 20, Montgomery County residents gathered for a town hall hosted by Councilmember Laurie-Anne Sayles to discuss the future of the County's aging Dickerson trash incinerator. Representatives of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) addressed questions about the costs, environmental impacts, and practical challenges of transitioning away from incineration.
The County Council reviewed 4 options currently under consideration. The discussion highlighted the important choices facing the County: continuing to operate and upgrade the incinerator, transitioning to truck hauling and landfill disposal, and introducing advanced waste processing technologies to reduce the amount of trash requiring disposal. Following the discussion, the panel reviewed pre-submitted questions from the community.
As the County Council moves closer to a decision, Sugarloaf Citizens Association (SCA) continues to advocate for closing the incinerator and moving toward safer, more sustainable waste management practices.
Zero Waste Responds to Reworld's Claims
As part of the ongoing Council deliberations, Reworld, the company that operates the Dickerson incinerator, has presented arguments for keeping the facility operating.
Our partner organization, Zero Waste Montgomery County, has prepared a detailed rebuttal addressing claims made by Reworld about Montgomery County's waste disposal options.
The 11-page rebuttal challenges what we believe are significant inaccuracies, misleading comparisons, and omissions in Reworld's presentation.
READ THE FULL REBUTTAL →
Key points from the rebuttal include:
Costs of Continued Incineration: Maintaining and upgrading the aging facility could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The rebuttal argues that transitioning to landfill disposal would provide greater financial flexibility as waste volumes decline.
Air Pollution and Public Health: The rebuttal raises serious concerns about toxic emissions, including dioxins and heavy metals, and challenges Reworld's claims about the facility's environmental performance and health risks.
Inadequate Emissions Monitoring: Although some pollutants are continuously monitored, many hazardous emissions are tested only annually or not at all, potentially missing significant fluctuations.
Climate Impacts: The rebuttal challenges Reworld's comparisons of incineration and landfilling, citing analyses indicating that incineration produces greater overall greenhouse gas emissions, even when transportation is considered.
Trucking Alternatives: The rebuttal disputes claims about increased traffic and transportation impacts, citing DEP's proposed truck routes and schedules designed to minimize disruption.
Electricity Production: The rebuttal questions Reworld's claims about the amount of electricity the incinerator generates and the number of homes it can power.
Long-Term Sustainability: Continued incineration could delay investments in composting, recycling, waste reduction, and other alternatives that would move the County closer to its zero-waste goals.
Toxic Ash Disposal: The rebuttal challenges Reworld's characterization of incinerator ash as harmless and raises concerns about its disposal and potential reuse.
The Zero Waste rebuttal provides a closer examination of these issues and the long-term consequences of continuing to operate the Dickerson incinerator.
What Happens Next? Your Voice Matters
The County Council’s next worksession is October 27, followed by a November 10 vote on whether to continue incinerating trash or send residual waste to landfills.
SCA continues to urge the Council to move forward with transitioning to truck hauling and environmentally vetted landfills, close the Dickerson incinerator, and invest in composting, waste reduction and advanced waste processing strategies.
The decisions made in the coming weeks will shape Montgomery County's waste management system for decades. Review our rebuttal, stay informed and reach out to all of the County Councilmembers and let them know you want to stop burning our trash and start composting now.
Email all council members here → countycouncil@montgomerycountymd.gov