In Hamtramck, the city council has taken a position against the incinerator. For the last two years, a large number of Detroit residents have been organizing to shut down the Henry Ford incinerator, the other large on-site medical waste incinerator in the state. The University Medical Center is under pressure from community leaders, environmental activists, concerned local citizens, and students to consider alternatives to incineration. The county has urged the U-M Medical Center to embrace a more aggressive recycling and reuse program than it currently uses. The County solid waste management strategy places a focus on waste reduction, reuse, and recycling first.
Incineration is definitely on the bottom of the hierarchy of waste management options.
The response by hospital administrators to these pressures has been quizzical. Reacting earlier this year to community activism, Medical Center Director Gil Omenn appointed a task force of hospital administrators, other University officials, students, and representatives of the surrounding community, including Easthope, to study the hospital's current protocols and costs for managing its waste stream, and how other medical institutions are addressing similar problems of compliance with EPA standards. The task force was to look specifically into the possibility of switching from incineration to other more environmentally friendly technologies for waste management. The Medical Center contracted Clayton Environmental Consultants to look into the possibilities, but Clayton has never had any experience dealing with medical waste incineration. They are charged with investigating costs for incineration versus alternative solutions, such as autoclaving, recycling, and reuse of materials.