The way I see it, the current debate about the Covanta incinerator in Chester is skewed, warped, and hysterical.
Shutting down incinerator is ludicrous
The idea of somehow achieving zero waste is utter fantasy. It is about as realistic as loading all the trash onto rocket ships and dumping it in space.
Technology can help with toxic smoke
If the Covanta incinerator is shut down, the immediate effect would be to increase solid waste, not decrease it. There would be more trucks rumbling through Chester and speeding up and down the Blue Route, going to and from the landfills upstate. It seems to me that, if the problem is dirty air, then what you need to do is clean up the smokestack to remove the pollutants that are coming out.