Landfill: UK could be waste free
As the occupation of the Basingstoke incinerator construction site continues, activists from around the UK are also descending on Westminster today to deliver a strong message at a Parliamentary lobby session: burning and burying mixed rubbish must stop.
A new coalition, Zero Waste Alliance UK, is being formally launched at the event. The Alliance is an umbrella organisation for dozens of groups working to promote waste elimination through increased recycling and composting and through stronger producer responsibility and packaging legislation.
The Zero Waste Charter and 10 Point Plan for achieving zero waste in the UK is being presented, after presentations by national and international experts on waste minimisation and resource recovery. Representatives from Greenpeace, Communities Against Toxics, Friends of the Earth and SERA are the first four signatories.
Ralph Ryder, a veteran anti-incineration campaigner and director of the newly formed Zero Waste Alliance UK explains the objective of the lobby session:
"Any politician who ignores the groundswell of public support for waste elimination initiatives should be reminded that Parliamentary seats are being lost on the issue of incineration, and councils changed control in Sheffield, Hull and Kidderminster as voters reject this polluting technology. Anti-incineration protests could very well make the road protests look like a dress rehearsal, as the ongoing occupation of the Basingstoke site shows.
"Practical proven alternatives exist. We don't need new and existing incinerators poisoning our food and the health of future generations. The Government must end its policies which favour infatuation and implement measures which will allow local authorities to give people what they want: kerbside collection of separated recyclable and compostable material."
The lobby session will be followed at 3:30pm by a lively demonstration on College Green, Westminster, then a Zero Waste picnic.
