Resources

GAIA and our allies have produced many quality resources. See below for some of our best.

Incinerators: Myths vs. Facts
In recent years, the incinerator industry has tried to expand their sector by marketing their facilities as “Waste to Energy” (WTE), using misleading claims of “reducing climate pollution”, and being a “clean energy source”. This document dispels some of the most common myths about incinerators with real facts.
Wilderness Committee Releases Anti-Incineration Video
Marketwire
June 22nd, 2010
The Wilderness Committee has launched a viral video decrying Metro Vancouver's proposal to build a new garbage incinerator as part of the proposed regional waste management plan.
Waste Not, Want Not
by Carroll McCormick, recycling today
May 31st, 2010
Nova Scotians have shown they are adept at diverting material from the solid waste stream.
Zero Waste for Zero Warming: Because no community is disposable!
GAIA is actively working on several fronts to promote positive solutions to waste and climate issues around the globe.
Not wasting the waste
by S. Ushakumari, National Catholic Reporter
January 6th, 2010
S. Ushakumari is a horticulturist who has been working with a public interest research organization for the past 20 years. Part of her life’s work is also a movement that is sweeping the globe: zero waste. Ultimately, zero waste aims to create a society that lives sustainably on a finite resource base. In the process, it strengthens local economies with jobs, reduces energy demands and thus climate change, and saves local governments money that is spent cleaning up industries’ messes.
Viewpoints: Don't talk trash – compost, recycle, create jobs instead
by Gavin Newsom and Robert Morales, sacbee.com
December 20th, 2009
On balance, reuse, recycling and composting make the most of our resources and create good, green jobs along the way.
Waste-pickers want to save the planet
by Shannon Swainston, COP15-News From Copenhagen
Today members from Waste-picker organisations joined together at the DGI Byen building to share their experiences and express the need for political action regarding recycling. The panel consisted of six people dedicated to recycling and countering climate change from India and South America.
Waste recyclers beat bankers (not-literally)
UK Without Incineration Network
December 15th, 2009
According to a recently released New Economics Foundation (NEF) report entitled A Bit Rich: Calculating the real value to society of different professions waste recycling workers produce a far better social return than do bankers or advertising executives.
Day one – Rich countries try to destroy Kyoto, while the resistance to their policies grows
by Ricardo Sequeiros Coelho, Cool the Earth
December 9th, 2009
A brief report on the debate, organized by GAIA, that showed various successful attempts to organize wastepickers in India and Latin America.
Enhanced Export Credit Agency Financing Terms in Response to Climate Change
A memo from ECA Watch focuses on the appropriateness of enhanced financing terms being negotiated by the Participants to the Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits (Participants) in response to the challenge of climate change.
New Report: An Industry Blowing Smoke
10 reasons why gasification, pyrolysis & plasma incineration are not “green solutions”
Toxic Wastes and Race at 20
Report shows minorities in the United States hurt by environmental injustice
Incinerators In Disguise - Case Studies
These case studies provide detailed accounts of the shortcomings of gasification, pyrolysis, and plasma facilities in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Co-written by GAIA and Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, these studies show why these facilities and proposals are nothing more than incinerators in disguise.
Mercury Rising: Reducing Global Emissions From Burning Mercury-added Products
The atmospheric mercury (Hg) emissions from waste have long been inadequately understood and seriously underestimated. This report scrutinizes the largest contributor to mercury in the waste stream – mercury-added products – and greatly improves our global understanding of this source of emissions.
Learning Not to Burn: A primer for Citizens on Alternatives to Burning Hazardous Waste
This primer is intended to fill a gap in information on non-incineration technologies for hazardous waste disposal, and present strategies that can be used in parallel with clean production and zero waste efforts to bring about sustainable solutions and environmental justice.
GAIA's Statement of Concern on Waste and Climate Change
GAIA's position paper on waste and climate change calls for Zero Waste strategies to address global warming and rejects the false solutions of incinerators and landfill gas collection.
Stop Trashing the Climate Report
The Stop Trashing the Climate report, written by GAIA, the Institute for Local Self Reliance and Eco-Cycle, provides compelling evidence that preventing waste and expanding reuse, recycling, and composting programs — that is, aiming for zero waste — is one of the fastest, cheapest, and most effective strategies available for combating climate change.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health
This highly illustrated guide from the Hesperian Foundation helps health promoters, development workers, environmental activists, and community leaders take charge of their environmental health.
Cement Kiln Information Clearinghouse
GAIA member groundWork has designed a web-based clearinghouse of information on the environmental and public health impacts of cement kilns burning waste.
The Story of Stuff
Longtime GAIA member Annie Leonard has created this fact-filled online video about the underside of our production and consumption patterns. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

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