Five international activists spoke of the various hazards of incinerators in their own countries at a public forum attended by 200 residents from Broga, Selangor - the site of the proposed mega-incinerator.

The activists - Junichi Sato and Setsuko Yamamoto (Japan), Pat Costner and Monica Wilson (US) and Von Hernandez (the Philippines) - also informed the local residents of some of the possible alternatives to incinerators.

The public forum held in Kajang o­n Saturday was jointly organised by the Broga/Semenyih No Incinerator pro tem committee and the New Era College's Community Service Student Initiative.

The project, funded through a RM2 billion Japanese soft loan, sparked off a second round of strong protests after it was relocated last November to Broga from the original site in Kampung Bohol, Puchong, where the controversy first arose.

The five international speakers earlier joined 100 other activists of the Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance/Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) who met in Penang last week to share success stories, update scientific data, plan campaigns against incineration as well as to provide alternatives.

The international alliance has about 300 member groups from 60 countries and seeks to phase out all forms of waste incineration, promote clean production, zero waste and sustainable discarded material management system.

Incinerator country

Anti-incinerator activist Setsuko said Japan was home to more than 3,000 municipal waste incinerators and 1,000 more for industrial wastes, giving her country the dubious distinction of recording the world's highest dioxin levels.

She attributed the 'retarded' state Japan finds itself in now - legally, ecologically and environmentally - to the indifference assailing its 127 million population.

"Official data prove that loosely-worded laws and lax enforcement of regulations have contributed to the mushrooming of incinerators where profit is almost guaranteed," she said.

"Incinerator makers are assured of fat profits based o­n the high construction fee as well as huge subsidies from both central and local governments without public permission or consensus."

Her colleague Junichi, from Greenpeace, said that based o­n the estimated construction cost of RM1.5 billion for the Broga project, the operational fee of roughly RM200 million per annum will be heavily subsidised through additional taxes.

"In Japan, a person pays for waste between RM350 and RM650 per annum on- average and a family of four will incur between RM1,400 and RM2,600 a year.

"If you multiply this by 20 years, which is the normal shelf life for an incinerator plant, you end up paying between RM28,000 and RM52,000."

Junichi said the final figure will be higher after factoring in the required spare part and breakdown repairs.

Trash-guzzling 'monster'

The other problem, he added, was the capacity to continuously feed the trash-guzzling "monster".

"Once a plant is operational, the incinerator needs to be fed round-the-clock throughout the year and people must still pay regardless of the volume."

Interestingly, he noted, a recycling programme would reduce the trash volume and naturally cause a shortage in the volume of garbage to feed incinerator plants.

"The first incinerator came to Japan more than 20 years ago and we're still trapped. So, please don't fall into the same trap (cycle of having to produce more trash just to feed the incinerators)," warned Junichi.

An earlier unofficial news blackout on the subject appeared to be still enforced since no other media representative was seen at the talk.