Sunday, 2 March 2008
Ban the Burn! Government Ignoring Advice
If South Africa goes ahead with plans to burn waste, as proposed
by the Waste Management Bill, it will cost us R140-billion
over the next 25 years. This is according to the Danish and
Norwegian technical consultants hired by the Department of
Environment and Tourism (DEAT). This equates to the entire
South African health budget, at current estimates, for more
than 12 years.
But despite this advice the DEAT wants to press ahead with
its plans to allow for incineration through the National Environmental
Management: Waste Management Bill (the Bill). And tomorrow
(Monday) when the Portfolio Committee on Environment and Tourism
meets to consider the Bill, DEAT will attempt to convince
committee members to accept incineration of waste in the Bill.
groundWork has been working with community people [1] and
NGOs country wide to develop a comprehensive response to the
Bill. We call on the Portfolio Committee to instruct the Department
of Environmental Affairs and Tourism at their joint meeting
tomorrow in Parliament to ban incineration within the Bill.
South Africa has a sad legacy with regard to the incineration
of waste. In the mid 1980’s Thor Chemicals, [2] after
being pressurised by the British government for excessive
mercury emissions at their plant in Margate in the UK, closed
the plant and shipped the plant to Cato Ridge, KwaZulu-Natal
where they imported mercurial hazardous waste and incinerated
it at the plant (see attached photo of Thor Chemicals incinerator
as of March 2008]. The result of this was three worker deaths
and more than 40 worker injuries all due to exposure of mercury.
The workers filed a law suit in London, as Thor Chemicals
is a British Company, and the case was successfully settled
out of court. However today, 20 years later the waste has
not been removed from the premises of Thor Chemicals where
the soil and buildings are contaminated with mercury.
In the 1990’s and early 2000’s Peacock Bay Environmental
Services attempted establish hazardous waste incinerators
in South Africa. They were unsuccessful, because of public
opposition to these proposals [3].
Since 2004, the cement industry has been attempting to get
permission from various provincial government departments
to incinerate waste in their cement kilns. groundWork, together
with other NGOs and community organisations have opposed these
developments, but government continues to entertain these
proposals. They have even funded a trip by the Deputy Minister
to Europe to view such proposals. The cement industry is one
of the worst regulated industries in South Africa. Despite
the fact that emissions from the cement industry include metals
such as mercury, volatile organic compounds, sulphur dioxide,
carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulates, government
only requires the cement industry to monitor for particulates.
They can therefore legally release unlimited amounts of the
other chemicals and compounds into the air.
The medical waste incineration industry is also facing a
huge challenge. There have been regular scandals, the most
recent being Aidsafe [4] and Waste Man, in Benoni and Klerksdorp
respectively, where tons of waste have been illegally stockpiled
because of poorly operated incinerators. groundWork has taken
samples of soil and ash adjacent to the now closed Compass
Waste operated incinerator in Ixopo, and have found both contaminated
with dioxins, which is created when waste is burnt [5]. Another
major pollutant from incineration is mercury.
Alternatives to incineration are already being used successfully.
In KwaZulu-Natal all commercial medical waste incinerators
have been closed. Companies in KwaZulu-Natal are using alternative
non-burn technologies successfully to treat medical waste.
groundWork will be at the Portfolio Committee meeting tomorrow
to take forward the message that: “the evidence of destruction
and pollution caused by incineration is very visible, and
so is the evidence for alternative practice. To ignore this,
and allow for incineration will be an injustice and an affront
to Section 24 of our Constitution which guarantees us an ‘environment
that is not harmful to our health and well-being’. We
implore the Portfolio Committee to protect us from incineration.”
groundWork has also approached the public protector to intervene
on DEAT’s push towards incineration. [6]
End:
For more information:
Bobby Peek, Director, groundWork, 082 464 1383
Footnotes:
[1] groundWork facilitated community participation from throughout
South Africa at the Portfolio Committee hearings on the Bill
on 21 November 2007. There was a unanimous call by the community
and NGO’s who gave testimony that incineration should
be proscribed. The Portfolio Committee was concerned by the
testimony of the community people and indicated that there
would be community visits to community areas before the Bill
is considered and would meet with the Portfolio Committee
on Health to discuss incineration. Please visit http://www.groundwork.org.za/Press%20Releases/Waste%20Management%20Bill%20Briefing%20Paper.pdf
for the briefing paper and groundWork position on the Bill.
[2] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Skysmith/Temp
for more information.
[3] See
http://www.groundwork.org.za/Press%20Releases/pr_sasolburg_victory.htm
for more information
[4] See http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintArticle.aspx?ID=646846
[5] Dioxin is one of the 12 most deadly chemicals in the
world. The United Nations has developed the Stockholm Convention
that seeks to eliminate the anthropogenic creation of dioxins.
In the US in the 1980’s and 90’s, medical waste
incinerators were the largest source of dioxins and the second
largest source of mercury, emissions into the atmosphere (Gibbs,
1995). Since then most of the US medical waste is treated
using alternative technologies. For more information on dioxins
visit http://books.google.co.za/books?id=MuMFYQ8CbEgC&pg=PA35&lpg=PA35&dq=dying+from+dioxins&source=web&ots=S7K4aHf-j7&sig=yS_mc1a1NFHcR8oiYU3TjjIBX5o&hl=en#PPA40,M1
[6] See http://www.groundwork.org.za/Press%20Releases/27febPublicProt08.asp
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