Demands Incinerators Phase Out, Seeks Zero Waste Solutions

Manila / Berkeley / Buenos Aires: Citizens from more than 50 countries today mark the Global Day of Action against Waste and Incineration with a resounding plea for innovative and ecological solutions that will address the growing volume and toxicity of discards.

Throughout this week, over 150 citizens' coalitions and groups are organizing public information activities, community dialogues and peaceful assemblies, or meeting government
officials on vital waste issues. In place of health-damaging dumps, landfills and incinerators, they challenge governments to adopt and implement policies that will prevent waste at source, reduce and eliminate toxics, extend producer responsibility, promote sustainable consumption, intensify recycling and composting, uphold environmental justice, create jobs, and build and support clean, safe, healthy, self- reliant and vibrant communities.

This international campaign, now on its fourth year, is coordinated by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (also known as the Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance) or GAIA, a non-profit network of public interest groups and individuals working together for waste solutions.

Manny Calonzo, Philippine-based Co-Coordinator of GAIA said: "Reducing wastes and toxics must be a top priority, locally and globally, if we are to restore the health of our frail planet and all its peoples. Promoting sustainable alternatives to waste incineration will have far ranging environmental health benefits, from protecting mother's milk from toxic contamination to reducing global warming greenhouse gases."

Studies have shown that waste incinerators are cancer factories, generating hundreds of pollutant releases such as dioxins and heavy metals that cause a variety of health problems, including cancer, reproductive and developmental disorder, and immune system dysfunction. In fact, governments have agreed under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) to work for the continuing minimization and ultimate elimination of dioxins
and other POP-byproducts of incineration, so as to protect public health and the environment.

Whether it is mass-burn, pyrolysis, gasification, plasma-arc, or "waste-to-energy", GAIA believes that waste incineration has no place in a sustainable future. Incinerators burn up and
squander valuable resources, produce toxic emissions and residues, pose financial burdens to host communities, and compete with waste prevention and recycling programs that could have created jobs and benefited local economies.

GAIA recognizes the many successful people-driven initiatives to move away from costly and environmentally destructive approaches for managing or reclaiming waste resources. Today we find a growing number of communities that are pursuing Zero Waste and Clean Production alternatives to reduce the quantities and toxicities of materials used and discarded, and maximize the reuse, recycling and composting of discarded materials. Community experiences show Zero Waste alternatives reduce negative health impacts, make a more sustainable use of nature's resources, and build local economies and democracies.

GAIA is a worldwide alliance of over 500 non-profit organizations and individuals from 77 countries who recognize that our planet's finite resources, fragile biosphere, and the health of people and other living beings are endangered by polluting and inefficient production practices
and health-threatening disposal methods. Launched in December 2000 in South Africa, GAIA and its members are involved in local and regional battles against incinerators, as well as many dozens of projects to put Zero Waste principles and systems into action. Please log on to www.no-burn.org for more information about GAIA and its work.

For more information please contact:
For Spanish-speaking media: Cecilia Allen at +5411- 4552- 8480
For French-speaking media: Fatou Souare at +1-510-8839490 extension 101
For Chinese-speaking media: Herlin Hsieh at +8862- 29383406
For US media: Monica Wilson at +1-510-8839490 extension 103
For the rest of the world: Abi Jabines or Manny Calonzo, GAIA Secretariat at +632- 9290376