WASTE NOT ASIA (ALLIANCE OF ASIA-PACIFIC NATIONS FOR PROMOTION OF CLEAN PRODUCTION AND A ZERO- WASTE ORIENTED SOCIETY) BANGKOK, 28 July 2000 - "We will no longer be the cesspit for the industrialised world," declared citizens of 12 Asian nations today in rejecting waste incineration as a failed technology. "Incineration is a toxic technology being dumped on us by some of the most polluted nations in the world," said Mr. Tara Buakamsri of Greenpeace South East Asia. "Japan and Europe have poisoned their own people with incinerators, and now they want to sell their burners in the rest of Asia." Buakamsri is one of the delegates attending the launch of Waste Not Asia, a new, regional alliance of civic organisations opposed to incineration and landfilling of waste. Alliance members have committed themselves to a Zero- Waste society, in which discarded materials are composted, recycled or reused, rather than being incinerated or landfilled. The Alliance singled out incineration as a particularly dangerous technology. Incinerators have been identified throughout the industrialised world as the primary source of dioxins, considered as the most potent toxic chemical known to humankind. "Incineration is waste management in the corporate interest, not the public interest," added Ms. Junilyn Sylvestre, a Waste Not Asia delegate from Philippine Clean Air Coalition. "Waste management in the public interest means conserving our materials for future generations, not converting them into toxic emissions." Ms. Sylvestre also criticised the incinerator industry for seeking new markets in Asia when it could no longer build new burners in the United States or western Europe. "This is an example of toxic trade, which seeks to make Asia the toilet bowl of the industrialised world. We are here to let the world know we no longer intend to become the dumping ground for their discarded technologies." Environmental activists from 12 Asia-Pacific nations today launched Waste Not Asia - the region's first alliance to oppose the expansion of waste incineration technologies and promote ecological methods of waste management. Waste Not Asia clarified that their alliance members will strive to put in place a sustainable society that will constantly endeavour to achieve a goal of zero waste through an evolving program of clean production. The Alliance's work will be based on principles that emphasise materials recovery over materials destruction; solutions that are democratically derived and socially just; systems that are community-based and emphasise local jobs creation involving small-businesses as opposed to capital-intensive corporate-led interventions. Waste Not Asia declared that the Bangkok Governor's decision to invest in incinerators to deal with the city's garbage violates every one of the principles of ecological waste management. In an Open Letter to the Governor of Bangkok, the international alliance members and their supporters from non-Asian countries declared that the Governor's decision unwise, expensive, dangerously polluting and insensitive to the priorities of citizens and the environment. Waste Not Asia has appealed to the Governor to live up to the obligations of his office by taking up the challenge to develop Bangkok as a model city by adopting progressive and creative concepts of addressing waste. "In this effort, Waste Not will extend informational and conceptual guidance," the Open Letter said. International lending agencies, particularly the ADB, the World Bank and the Japanese JICA, and industrialised countries came under severe attack by the Alliance for their roles in peddling hazardous technologies such as incinerators. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that waste incineration releases super-poisons such as dioxins and heavy metals that endanger human health and the environment. "It is unacceptable that Japan which has created an environmental health disaster in its backyard because of its over-reliance on incinerators is now pushing to export its polluting machines to Thailand. This follows the same pattern of toxic trade where rich countries that have already poisoned their people are moving their dirty technologies to poison the people and environment of Asia," said Tara Buakamsri, toxics campaigner with Greenpeace, one of the members of the Alliance. According to the United Nations Environment Program, Japanese incinerators account for almost 40 percent of the global emissions of dioxins. Faced with ever- tightening regulations industrialised countries and declining local sales, incinerator manufacturers such as Wheelaborator, Kvaerner, ABB, Mitsubishi and NKK are actively lobbying to discover new and unsuspecting markets for their products in the developing economies of Asia-Pacific. "The ongoing dioxin-related public health disaster in Japan is a direct result of too many incinerators, too much garbage and no materials policy that ban the use or disposal of dioxin contributors, particularly chlorinated products like poly vinyl chloride (pvc) plastics," said Dr. Koa Tasaka, a Japanese professor of chemistry and representative of Alliance member Japanese POPs Elimination Network (JPEN). "The Japanese Government should take rapid steps to not only address its domestic health crisis, but also to ensure that Japan doesn't end up poisoning the rest of Asia through its toxic exports," he said. Building on specific instances of incinerator exports from industrialised countries to the Asia-Pacific region, the Alliance activists have resolved that fighting the introduction and expansion of incineration is a good first step towards ecological waste management. "We are no longer alone. And with the launch of the Asian Anti-incineration Alliance, we would like to put Governments and the incinerator industry on notice that we now have the ability, information and skills to challenge their visionless designs to address garbage problems. This is not merely a fight against incinerators; we'll actually strive to show the way forward and out of the present garbage crisis," said Mr. Sasanka Dev, an activist from DISHA, an Indian environmental group. For more information contact: Von Hernandez, Asia Toxic Campaigner, Greenpeace, Email: von.hernandez@dialb.greenpeace.org Neil Tangri, Campaigner, Essential Action, email: ntangri@essential.org Tara Buakamsri, Toxics Campaigner, Greenpeace. Mobile: +66 (1) 8550013 NOTES: 1. The Asian Anti-Incineration Alliance consists of activists from India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Guam, Pakistan, Nepal, Thailand, Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan. Incinerators are linked with emissions of deadly poisons including dioxins and furans, and heavy metals such as lead and mercury.