Manila/Berkeley/Geneva/Kovalam 14 June 2003. Thanal Conservation Action & Information Network, based in Thiruvananthapuram joined the Global Day of Action against incineration by starting a training programme for local community members in Kovalam in coconut shell products, which are meant to replace many of the toxic and unsustainable materials like plastics from the consumer market and waste stream. The training programme is being organized at the Zero Waste Centre at Kovalam, as part of the Zero Waste Kovalam project. In this occasion, the Zero Waste Centre released a charter of “Vision Zero Waste” and called on Corporations, Municipalities and Panchayaths in the State to sign on to the charter and start taking action against wrong waste disposal and management practices like incineration and start moving towards “Zero Waste”.

Mr. R. Sridhar from Thanal giving a lecture on Zero Waste

The Global Day of Action this day saw more than 235 groups from 62 countries take action against waste incineration. This combined and simultaneous protest actions around the world mark the observance of the 2nd Global Day of Action against Waste Incineration, by far the most massive demonstration of public opposition to incinerators on a global scale. Governments all over the world have been warned against adoption of this controversial technology, which spells doom to waste management, public health and drains public money. Spearheaded by GAIA, the yearly anti-incineration day of action intends to highlight the health, environmental, economic and social problems associated with waste burning and other polluting waste management practices, and at the same time promote safe and sustainable alternatives for preventing waste and managing society’s discards.

“With growing desperation to ensure the survival of their dying industry, 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 like pyrolysis or gasification for the same old and discredited process,” said Ann Leonard, Co-Coordinator of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), which unites over 375 groups and communities fighting to end wasting and burning, from 77 countries.

Marking the occasion in Thiruvananthapuram, Shibu K Nair of the Zero Waste Centre, Kovalam, India called on the Local Bodies in the State to “stop planning in terms of disposal of waste, which always meant burning, dumping or burying and which encouraged wasteful and obsolete methods like incinerators, landfills and even mixed waste composting plants and instead to think in terms of resource use minimization and recovery of resource from discards through segregation at source and full participation and responsibility of the public”.

The Zero Waste Kovalam Project conceived by Thanal, GAIA and Greenpeace at Kovalam is a novel project and the first of its kind in the world, which aims to shift the paradigm from "waste management" to "resource management". “Zero Waste Kovalam has already moved much ahead in having the best resource recovering infrastructure thanks to a collective and participatory efforts of the community and institutions involved, especially the Venganoor Panchayath(Local Self Government), the Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology(IHMCT), the Kerala Tourism Department and the Kerala Hotel & Restaurants Association (KHRA).” added Shibu K Nair

The Zero Waste Kovalam Project was started in 2001, following a campaign against incineration. The Tourism Department who had proposed incinerators responded by shelving the proposals , and later adopting the Zero Waste Kovalam initiative of the public-interest groups. “Such examples speak much about what governments can do to actually do away with waste and toxic technologies” said Sujatha, a volunteer with the Zero Waste Centre.

On this day, GAIA also released the report “Waste Incineration: A Dying Technology,” which explains why incinerators are an unsustainable and obsolete method for dealing with waste. The GAIA report concludes that incineration is a dying technology. As a waste treatment technology, it is unreliable and produces a secondary waste stream more dangerous than the original. As an energy production method, it is inefficient and wasteful of resources. As an economic development tool, it is a catastrophe, which drains money out of local communities and creates scarce and often dangerous jobs.

Today’s actions also coincide with the first day of the Seventh Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC 7) meeting of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). The Convention, which is yet to be ratified by India, aims to eliminate the most persistent toxic substances known to science, including the cancer-causing dioxins and furans.

The Convention identifies all waste incinerators, including cement kilns burning hazardous wastes, as major sources of dioxins and furans and polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs and recommends the use of substitute techniques to avoid the generation of these unintentionally produced pollutants. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) reports that incinerators account for 69% of dioxin emissions worldwide.

This year’s action surpasses the number of participating groups from last year’s Global Day of Action that drew 126 groups from 54 countries.

NOTE:
The GAIA Report “Waste Incineration: A Dying Technology" is available for free download at www.no-burn.org The Report discusses the problems with waste incineration and explains viable alternatives to this outdated method for dealing with waste. The report further talks about the expanding repudiation of incineration across the globe, including incinerator bans and moratoria imposed in several places. Neil Tangri, formerly of Essential Action USA wrote the report for GAIA.

Contacts:
For information on local issues and activities, please contact Shibu K Nair, at the Zero Waste Centre, R.B Towers, Azhakulam, Kovalam P.O. Ph : 98471-89168