zero burn coalition (@zeroburncoalition.bsky.social)

Minneapolis Activists Launch Hunger Strike to Protest Polluting Trash Incinerator Minneapolis activists are escalating a decades-long fight by going on a hunger strike to demand that local officials shut down a polluting trash incinerator. Residents have long opposed the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center, which burns waste to generate energy, for adding to toxic air pollution in a predominantly Black community with high rates of asthma. Local activists who began their strike on Friday say they won’t eat until owner Hennepin County takes concrete steps toward shuttering the facility. “This is part of the climate emergency,” said Nazir Khan, co-founder of the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table and one of three who began hunger-striking on Friday. “Waste is literally killing our neighbors.” On Friday morning, Khan and other environmental justice advocates with the Zero Burn Coalition held a rally at a building near Minneapolis City Hall and delivered a letter to the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners with their demands: Hold a public vote to close the trash burner, set a closure date and establish a community-led task force to advance zero-waste alternatives. The area surrounding HERC, also bisected by Interstate 94, has some of the state’s highest rates of emergency room visits for asthma. In 2022, researchers used a U.S. Environmental... https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10042026/minneapolis-hunger-strike-protesting-trash-incinerator-pollution/