ASIAN ALLIANCE
SUPPORTS LOCAL CAMPAIGN AGAINST INCINERATION
Taipei,
30 July 2001 In solidarity with local groups fighting waste
incineration, an international alliance of Asian activists today
urged the Taiwanese government to start shifting its waste management
focus on a strategy that puts precedence on waste reduction,
composting and recycling programs instead of relying on incinerators
and landfills.
Waste Not Asia (WNA), a coalition of environmental groups from
16 Asian-Pacific countries, specifically called on Taiwanese
national and local government officials to junk current plans
to construct additional incinerators for the country, stressing
that wasting much needed financial resources on this dangerous
disposal option is unjustifiable especially when safer and economical
alternatives could easily be implemented.
Taiwan needs to make the critical shift now from the traditional
burn and bury" disposal options to active pollution prevention
and disposal reduction programs like recycling and composting.
This approach is not only environmentally desirable, it is also
economically superior and less expensive than the traditional
disposal oriented systems," according to Madhumitta Dutta from
Toxics Link, an Indian environmental group.
Moreover, incinerators have been pinpointed as major if not
the largest sources of toxic emissions into the environment,
including heavy metals and the ultra toxic dioxins and furans,
which are known carcinogens. Dioxins and furans are on the list
of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) now targeted for elimination
by the international community under the newly adopted Stockholm
Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants which renders incineration
as an untenable option for many countries (1).
Taiwan should learn from the lamentable experience of Japan
which has chosen the incineration route over other safe and
productive waste management options, only to find itself in
deep financial quagmire wasting precious public money in a futile
exercise to control dioxin emissions," said Ayako Sekine of
Greenpeace Japan, a member organization of Waste Not Asia.
Japan operates the most number of waste incinerators than any
other country in the world today. The country, however, also
owns the dubious distinction of having the highest levels of
dioxin emissions in the environment, a major consequence of
this mindless waste burning policy. According to a recent Greenpeace
study, the Japanese government spends between 5 to 7 Billion
US dollars every year for the construction and maintenance of
incinerators, with a third of the amount going into emission
control devices (2) .
According to independent studies, communities living around
and downwind of incinerators in Japan have been documented to
have higher rates of cancer, birth defects and infant mortality
compared to incineration free areas.
Instead of wasting the people's resources on dangerous and dirty
waste management dinosaurs like incinerators and landfills,
the government should channel its resources and energies instead
into the right solutions, namely intensive waste segregation,
recycling and composting. This is the only lasting and genuine
solution to this problem," said George Cheng, Executive Director
of the Taiwan Watch Institute.
Taiwan should not repeat the costly mistakes of countries who
went the incineration route like Japan. It just doesn't make
sense for our officials to drain our economy of much needed
financial resources especially to pay for dirty projects which
will end up poisoning our people and our environment," added
Cheng.
For her part, Mageswari Sangaralingam of the Consumers Association
of Penang, a Malaysian group, deplored the continuing export
of incinerators from industrialized countries like Japan, Denmark
and Germany to the developing countries of Asia, describing
it as a form of toxic trade which traps developing countries
into a vicious mix of toxic emissions, massive debt repayments
and financial expenditures and even greater poverty."
WNA is the Asian node of the Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance
or GAIA, an expanding international alliance of environmental
and other non-governmental organizations working to stop all
forms of waste incineration and seeking to promote sustainable
waste prevention and discard management practices. The group
just ended its second annual meeting in Taipei
NOTES
(1) The Stockholm Convention provides Parties with a new high
standard with respect to what constitutes appropriate destruction
for POPs stockpiles and wastes. The Convention for one, calls
on Parties to take measures so that POPs wastes are disposed
in a manner that does not produce produce POPs. Incineration,
including so called state-of-the-art varieties have been pinpointed
as significant sources of dioxin releases into the environment.The
treaty aims to eliminate all POPs and lists twelve substances
for priority action. The dirty dozen include intentionally produced
chemicals such as pesticides and PCBs, as well as by-products
such as furans and the cancer-causing dioxins. These are still
routinely released as unwanted by-products of industries that
use chlorine and from waste incinerators.
(2) According to recently released report entitled The Construction
Cost of Municipal Waste Incinerators Counter Measures against
Dioxin (The Entire Picture of Domestic Expenditure and its Trend)";
July 24, 2001, Greenpeace Japan.
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