|
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
back
| 