Incineration: Zero Waste campaign logo
Greenpeace has been working in a number of different ways to ensure that no new incinerators are built and that existing incinerators are shut down.
To draw attention to the health risks posed by incineration, in October 2000 we occupied the chimney of the Edmonton incinerator, the largest rubbish burner in the UK. In May this year, the five Greenpeace volunteers involved in the action were acquitted of criminal damage charges, because the jury accepted that they had taken action to prevent the greater crime of polluting the people of North London. In essence, the jury found the incinerator operator and the Environment Agency guilty of failing to do their job of protecting public health.
Also in May we took action to draw attention to the appalling number of times existing incinerators exceed their already inadequate permitted levels of pollution. We closed down the Sheffield incinerator because it was by far the worst of the worst, with many more breaches than any other incinerator. The breaches records of the 10 operating incinerators in England were detailed in our May 2001 report Criminal Damage.
In addition to these actions, we have produced some important research, including Incineration and Human Health, a comprehensive review of existing knowledge of the impacts of incineration on human health, which was distributed to key policymakers in central Government and forwarded to the managing directors of all operational incinerators. We have also produced a precis of that document which we have distributed to every county and district council in the UK. In September 2001 we sent another mailing to every council leader and chief executive officer to provide them with the latest research on incineration and health.
Greenpeace has also been working behind the scenes making presentations to a number of key waste committees, including the House of Commons Select Committee which concluded in its March 2001 report that "incineration will never play a major role in truly sustainable waste management".
We have worked with internationally renowned waste experts to produce two key documents on alternatives to incineration, which clearly show that all current targets for waste reduction can be met (and substantially bettered) without the need for incineration.
How to comply with the landfill directive without incineration: A Greenpeace Blueprint is a practical nuts and bolts guide for local authorities on how to meet or better their targets and where they can get the equipment to do so. This has been sent out to every local authority in the country - so they can't claim they didn't know there was a better way.
The second document is central to the Zero Waste campaign. Intended to mirror the waste strategies each local authority must produce, Getting to Zero Waste: A Citizens' Resource Recovery Strategy makes the case for separate kerbside collection of organic waste, dry recyclable materials, and residual material. A three-stream collection system would allow us to turn kitchen and garden waste into compost and soil conditioner, as well as reusing or recycling paper, glass, metal and textiles.
We are assisting Zero Waste campaign teams around the country who are challenging local authorities to reject combustion based waste disposal methods and move towards truly sustainable systems which will dramatically reduce the volume of waste.
