WHY YOU SHOULD SAY NOT TO INCINERATORS
What
are incinerators?
Incinerators are ovens with chimneys. To ‘incinerate’
means to burn something until only ashes are left over. Incinerators
burn waste (rubbish) to ashes. They can be very simple drums,
or machines which cost millions of rands.
Incinerators are used to burn:
· household rubbish
· industrial waste (from factories)
· medical waste (from hospitals)
In South Africa, medical waste incinerators are the most
common type of incinerators. There are also some industrial
(or hazardous) waste incinerators. In SA there are very few
incinerators for household waste.
Different names for different types of incinerators are:
plasma arc; waste-to-energy; cement kilns; and rotary kilns.
Does burning make waste go away?
Some people think that when you burn waste you destroy it.
This is wrong. When you burn rubbish it doesn’t go away,
it changes into something else. Incinerators change wasteinto:
(1) toxic gases (poison in the air) and tiny bits which float
into the air and make it dirty (air pollution)
(2) toxic ash and other left-over pieces which must be buried
underground, which can make nearby soil and water dirty or
poisonous (soil and air pollution).
What is wrong with incinerators?
1. Air Pollution
All types of incinerators cause some air pollution. One incinerator
can put as many as 190 different chemicals into the air. Many
of these chemicals are very dangerous to our health. Some
chemicals can cause cancer.
There are many ways to make incinerators send out less pollution,
but there is no way to stop all the pollution.
2. Incineration can make
people sick
Incinerator workers and people who live near to incinerators
have more health problems. These people get sick easily and
they have a high risk of getting cancer. They also may find
it difficult to get pregnant and have children.
Many of the substances which
come out of incinerators are very poisonous. These chemicals
can enter our bodies when we breathe in polluted air, or when
we eat food that has been contaminated (touched by dirt or
poison). For example: these chemicals can settle on grass,
and then cows eat the grass. When we drink the cows’
milk or eat beef, these chemicals enter our bodies.
3. Dangerous ash comes out of incinerators
The ash which is left over after waste has been burned
in an incinerator is much more poisonous than the waste before
it was burned. This is because new substances are made when
the waste burns – such as dioxins, furans and heavy
metals. This means that incinerator ash still has to be thrown
away safely on a special dump for dangerous waste (hazardous
landfill site).
4. Incineration does not help people to make less waste
Incinerators need quite a lot of waste everyday to keep
working. This does not encourage people to make less rubbish.
People should be trying to throw fewer things away, so that
we do not have a problem trying to get rid of all our rubbish.
5. Incinerators are expensive
Incinerators are very expensive to make. They are also
expensive to keep running. They do not make jobs for people
in our communities. A lot of money is paid to large private
companies or companies from overseas who operate the incinerators.
Often this money comes from taxes paid by ordinary people.
There are other ways to deal with waste which can make jobs
for people in our communities, such as separating and recycling
waste. Money spent like this stays in the community.
6. Most incinerators are in poor areas
Incinerators are usually built in poor communities. In
South Africa these are usually black communities. This is
because incinerators make pollution. People who are wealthy
and educated know that pollution is unhealthy. It is easier
for companies to put incinerators in communities where people
do not know about the danger. This is called environmental
racism.
What do incinerator companies say?
Incinerator companies claim that incinerators reduce the
volumes of waste. This is not true. If you put together all
the ash, leftovers and dirty air coming out of an incinerator,
you would find just as much waste as you put into the incinerator.
Incinerator companies also claim that incineration is cheaper
than putting the waste in a proper landfill site. This is
only true when the incinerators are very old or very cheap.
The older and cheaper the incinerator is, the more poisonous
pollution it will make. The air pollution will affect the
health of the community. This will cost the community a lot
of money in terms of visits to doctors and buying medicine.
What do governments say?
Many countries do not want to incinerate (burn) waste anymore
because of all the problems with incinerators. The Philippines
government has banned incineration. In America far more incinerators
are being closed then are being built. The British government
has said that incineration will never be a good way to deal
with waste in the future, and that there are no other good
ways to use incineration. The South African government has
said that we should stop using incinerators, and find different
ways to deal with waste.
What can we do?
- Waste avoidance
- Recycling
- Waste reduction
- Re-using
- Composting
People who make the things we buy in shops need to stop using
substances which cannot be recycled, reused or composted.
Products should be designed to be reused instead of thrown
away.
Other safer technologies for treating waste to make it less
toxic, such as microwaving and steam sterilization for medical
waste.
What else can you do?
- Fight against the development of incinerators in your
community.
- Join community organisations which are against incineration
- Go to public meetings and speak out against incinerators
- Teach people not to burn their rubbish
- Buy products which can be re-used or recycled and not
get thrown away
- Wherever possible, reuse, recycle, and compost your waste
For more information:
groundWork Tel: 033-342 5662 or e-mail:
team@groundwork.org.za
or web: www.groundwork.org.za
Western Cape Anti Incineration Alliance (AIA) Alliance c/o
EJNF tel: 021- 448 0144 or e-mail thabang@ejnf.org.za
Earthlife Africa Tel: 011-782 6602
Global Anti-Incineration Alliance (GAIA): www.no-burn.org
Greenpeace International: www.greenpeace.org
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