Sample document for campaigning
A waste crisis looms in the UK. Every year we create nearly 30 million tonnes of municipal waste.1 Currently we recycle, on average, only 11%. The majority we bury in landfills. However, many local authorities are looking at incineration as an option. We are wasting valuable resources because, traditionally, planners have viewed burying or burning rubbish as our only options.
Incinerators pose serious health and environmental problems because they merely reduce waste to ashes of varying toxicity and distribute chemical pollution over wide areas through airborne emissions. Incineration of mixed municipal waste inevitably leads to the creation and discharge of highly toxic substances, including carcinogenic dioxins and a wide array of dangerous heavy metals. Even "state of the art" incinerators legally discharge hundreds of thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases annually and thousands of tonnes of fine dust which can lodge deeply in people's lungs and result in major respiratory problems.
