Students Will March To Stop Huge Trash Incinerator

December 10 is the Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Here is an update from the United Workers Free Your Voice human rights committee:

The United Worker’s Free Your Voice human rights committee has been working to stop the nation’s largest trash burning incinerator from being built less than a mile from their school and an elementary.

Last year, a group of students at Benjamin Franklin High School, who are members of the United Workers human rights committee, learned about a plan to build the nations’ largest trash burning incinerator less than a mile from their school. The students were alarmed and decided to take on the issue as the focus of their group. The group spent the year researching the incinerator and learned that:

 – The incinerator would be the largest in the nation and would be less than a mile away from several schoolsv>
 – It would burn 4,000 tons of trash per day and emit 240 pounds of mercury per year, producing more pollution than any coal plant in the nation in an neighborhood called Curtis Bay which:
 – already has some of the highest levels of toxic air pollution in the nation 
-and has among the highest mortality rates for heart disease, lung cancer, and chronic lower respiratory disease in the city.

The students decided to oppose the project and made these 2 powerful videos (here and here) to share their story and raise awareness about the issue.

Free Your Voice from Free Your Voice on Vimeo.

StopTheIncinerator from Free Your Voice on Vimeo.

They also launched this website and petition (already gathering over 1,800 supporters).  And continue to bring national attention to this issue- check on this awesome article featured on grist.org about our campaign to stop the incinerator.

Now they have decided to take direct action and organize a march to make their voices heard to put community health first. On behalf of the students, we want to invite you to our march to stop the incinerator, Tuesday December 10th at 3pm at Benjamin Franklin High School, 1201 Cambria Street, Baltimore MD 21225. 

We hope you are able to attend this march with hundreds of students, community members, and supporters who will stand together in a call to put the health of our communities first. Please spread the word about the march and share the facebook event with your online community.