Global protest against waste incineration

international | environment | news report

Tuesday July 22, 2003 02:52

by no-burn

Biggest day of action ever against incineration

A major protest against waste incineration was staged this week, involving over 235 groups from 62 countries. The protest was timed to coincide with the first day of the Seventh Intergovernmental Committee meeting on persistent organic pollutants (POPS), and the release of a new report recommending the phasing out of waste incineration.

The report, ‘Waste Incineration: a dying technology’, released by the group Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), claims that incineration is an unreliable waste treatment technology which produces secondary waste streams more dangerous than the original.

It says incineration is also inefficient in terms of energy production and creates very few jobs.

Ann Leonard, Co-coordinator of GAIA, who organised the protest, said that people are concerned with efforts in the US Senate to classify incineration as renewable energy.

“Incinerator pushers are scrambling to repackage and reinvent their technologies using various forms of greenwashing including referring to incinerators as clean, renewable energy sources, or claiming to have new variations for the same old and discredited process,” she said.

Public opposition has contributed to the closure of incineration facilities worldwide. Jurisdictions in 15 countries have partial bans on incineration and the Philippines have banned it all together.

The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants identifies all waste incinerators, including cement kilns burning hazardous waste, as major sources of dioxins, furans and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and recommends the use of substitute techniques to avoid this pollution.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) also reports that incinerators account for 69% of dioxin emissions worldwide.

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Comments (3 of 3)

Why does our Government persist?

by Niall Ó Brolcháin - Green Party

Tue Jul 22, 2003 10:43

niallob at esatclear dot ie

I find it mind boggling that when mass burn incineration is on the wane almost everywhere else in the world that our Government conntinues to persist with plans to build incinerators here.

It is likely that these plans will largely remain in the background until after the local elections at which stage incineration will be firmly back on the agenda again. Be warned!

Not so mind boggling

by Waster

Tue Jul 22, 2003 12:04

It's not so mind boggling because they have already decided we are going to have incinerators. The money has been set aside. Recycling has been underfunded so that it can only fail. And we can be sure many a brown envelope has already been handed over. And to make sure there is no legal or council opposition the law has been changed so that all power concerning waste decisions and recyling has been removed from county councillors and ratained by county chairman and other members of the centralised government. Now if that is not a setup for corruption, I don't know what is.

And getting payment for burning waste...

by ,.,.

Tue Jul 22, 2003 13:27

...from those countries who are stopping such action can bring about a great income for the owners. ahh sweet trade...

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Global protest against waste incineration

Comments (3 of 3)