In mass burn facilities, wastes are indiscriminately injected into the boiler without any preprocessing or sorting of noncombustible materials. These facilities burn at temperatures of more than 1500 degrees and generally handle between 200 and 750 tons of municipal solid waste each day. These facilities are more costly to build and operate so there are fewer RDF facilities in operation around the world than traditional mass burn incinerators. In fact, most RDF facilities have been commercial failures and some have been converted into mass burn facilities. Considerable opposition, however, to waste incineration has arisen.
Concerns focus on their cost and fears about pollutants emitted in the combustion process.
It is not known what the relative contributions of each of these processes are. In order to prevent toxic emissions such as metals, inorganic acid gases and particulate matter, systems are equipped with air pollution control devices. Incinerators have become controversial issues in many communities. In particular, community advocates in Ohio were concerned that the Clinton Administration had reneged on Vice-President Gore's promise to halt the opening of a waste incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio. In response to political pressures, the EPA has imposed an 18 month moratorium on licensing for new plants while it reviews safety standards.