Summary
This bill would prohibit open burning of solid waste, excluding certain organic material such as yard debris, landscaping waste and some agricultural wastes. The bill defines open burning as a process that lacks an enclosed combustion process, that burns material incompletely, and that lacks air pollution combustion controls. The bill sets forth penalties for violations. It does not preclude local laws or regulations that are more protective.

Explanation
Open burning of household waste sends some of the most toxic materials known into the air: lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, PCBs, formaldehyde, hydrogen chloride, sulfur dioxide, dioxins and furans. A recent study by the New York State Departments of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Health and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that one household burn barrel is capable of emitting amounts of dioxin equal to those emitted by a 200 ton/day incinerator. Open trash burning also results in particulate matter (soot) of a size small enough to penetrate deep into a person's lungs. It is undoubtedly an aggravating factor in the state’s widespread incidence of asthma.

DEC’s Risk Reduction Strategies Work Group met from 1996-2002 to identify the environmental releases that pose the most risk to human health and the environment, and to identify pollution prevention initiatives to address these top risks. After an extensive process, backyard burning was identified as one of the highest risk activities. A legislative ban on all backyard burning was recommended in DEC’s final report.

A burn barrel ban will have immediate positive effects on air pollution levels and air quality.

Environmental Advocates of New York strongly supports this bill.