HARRRISBURG, PA, USA. In a show of environmental solidarity, Harrisburg's leading voices on incineration, Clean Air Council and Coalition Against the Incinerator, joined 200 groups from 62 countries by releasing a new report entitled, "Waste Incineration: A Dying Technology." The groups used the occasion to call for the City of Harrisburg to shelve spending an additional $100 million on top of an approximately $80 million debt to retrofit the Harrisburg Incinerator. The report discusses the problems with waste incineration and promotes viable alternatives to this outdated method for dealing with waste.

"Anyone who reads the report by Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) will see that the problems with incineration generally are a mirror image of the issues surrounding the Harrisburg Incinerator -- bloated debt, environmental racism, and low recycling rates," said Brooks Mountcastle, Harrisburg Director of Clean Air Council. "Clean Air Council and Coalition Against the Incinerator urge City Council to look at the environmental and financial repercussions of retrofitting the Harrisburg incinerator and reject any additional incinerator funding."

"The report reinforces all the problems we have been highlighting about incineration, most notably that it is an outdated means to address solid waste issues," said Wendi Taylor with Coalition Against the Incinerator. ?Incineration has failed to prove itself - economically, socially, and environmentally. Instead of exploring safer, more environmentally sound ways to manage its waste such as recycling, the City is looking to burn its waste and the waste from surrounding counties and states, further compounding the problem," added Taylor.

Over the last five years, 26 municipal waste incinerators have closed, and only 2 have opened in the United States. A massive grassroots effort has defeated more than 300 municipal waste incinerator proposals in the United States in the last 15 years. Around the globe, the same message is catching on. In Japan, 500 incinerators have closed down in recent years, and in the Philipines, incineration has been banned entirely.

Spearheaded by GAIA, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, the yearly anti-incineration day of action highlights the health, environmental, economic and social problems associated with waste burning and other polluting waste management practices, and at the same time promotes safe and sustainable alternatives for preventing waste and managing waste.

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Editor's Note: For a complete report, please visit the GAIA website at:
www.no-burn.org

Clean Air Council --- is a state-wide, member supported, non-profit environmental organization founded in1967 by area community leaders including Lung Association affiliates. Through public education, citizen-based advocacy, and government oversight, the Council works to protect everyone?s right to breathe clean air.

Coalition Against the Incinerator --- is a citizen-based advocacy organization that formed three years ago to highlight the problems with the Harrisburg Incinerator and to encourage the City to find alternatives to the Harrisburg Incinerator.

 

Contacts:
Brooks Mountcastle (Clean Air Council)
717-230-8806
Wendi Taylor (Coalition Against the Incinerator)
717-233-6842