press releases

Greenpeace today welcomed the news that waste company Onyx UK has agreed to close down Sheffield's Bernard Road incinerator. Greenpeace volunteers occupied the plant for three days in May after a new report identified it as the worst in Britain. Onyx is due to take over the running of waste management services from Sheffield City Council.

Greenpeace toxics campaigner Miranda Holmes said:

Conceding to the demands of citizens groups and Greenpeace, the Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever has agreed to permanently close its polluting mercury thermometer factory in India, the largest in the world. The company has also agreed to undertake a clean-up of 5.3 tons of mercury wastes it illegally dumped at a local scrapyard, but it is still refusing to accept that local people and workers at the factory in Kodiakanal may have been exposed to the highly toxic metal.

Commenting on the publication today, by the National Society for Clean Air (NSCA), of a report on the health impacts of incineration, Greenpeace Incineration Campaigner Blake Lee-Harwood said: 

EU pressing ahead with Kyoto

Greenpeace, WWF and Friends of the Earth (FoE), the three largest international environmental groups welcomed the conclusions of the EU Heads of state and government to isolate President George W Bush by their decision to go ahead with the implementation and ratification of the Kyoto Protocol.

Greenpeace welcomes jury's verdict and calls on Government to end waste incineration in UK

Five Greenpeace volunteers were today acquitted of charges of criminal damage by a jury at Wood Green Crown Court, London. The charges relate to the occupation of Edmonton incinerator in October last year when the five volunteers closed the plant for four days by camping on top of the chimney.

Greenpeace activists protesting against US Government plans to deploy a star wars missile system and the US's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, today blocked the gates of the Brussels military airport where Bush arrived this morning.

A group of 17 activists chained themselves to the airport gates, made a human chain in front of the gates, carrying banners "George Bush - outlaws not welcome" and "GW Bush wanted for crimes against the planet" referring to rejection of key international treaties on climate change and arms control.

Greenpeace dismisses George Bush's speech in the Rose Garden on climate change, saying that his interpretation of climate science is fantasy at best, and deliberately misleading at worst.

Repeating the mantra of the US fossil fuel industry, Bush called for more scientific research while at the same time rejecting any real action to protect the climate.

The jury at Wood Green Crown Court were sent out today (1pm, Tuesday 12th) to consider their verdict in the trial of five Greenpeace volunteers charged with criminal damage over the shutdown of Britain's biggest waste incinerator. 

The charges relate to the occupation of Edmonton incinerator in October last year when the five volunteers closed the plant for four days by camping on top of the chimney. The defendants had argued that their occupation of the plant was lawful because the incinerator was breaking pollution laws and discharging hundreds of tonnes of toxic chemicals, which threatened people, property and the environment.

Greenpeace called on the Labour Party to ban rubbish incinerators and abandon plans for up to 100 new plants, after medical research published in The Lancet showed that toxic fumes from incinerators could be having alarming effects on the sexual development of children. The study found that teenagers living near incinerators had smaller sexual organs than those in rural areas. The teenagers' bodies contained high levels of toxic chemicals, which are thought to interfere with sexual development and are already linked to cancer, heart disease, allergies and breathing illnesses.