7 SEPTEMBER, 2005
DEMONSTRATION AGAINST PROPOSED BURNING OF HAZARDOUS WASTE
BY CEMENT INDUSTRY IN SOUTH AFRICA
7 September, 2005: An international coalition of activists
today launched the 4th Global Day of Action against Waste
(GDAW) citing the increasing health impacts of polluting waste
disposal practices.
Coordinated by the Global Anti-Incineration Alliance (GAIA)
[1], over 200 citizens from over 50 countries are participating
today in what has become an annual day of protest against
unsustainable and dangerous waste disposal systems with a
resounding plea for innovative and ecological solutions that
will address the growing volume and toxicity of discards.
Incinerators are linked to serious environmental health threats.
Incineration alone is responsible for 69 percent of global
emissions of the notorious pollutant dioxin, which is linked
to cancer, immune system repression, reproductive system disorders,
birth defects, and other health threats. Incineration is also
a primary source of mercury releases as a result of medical
waste incineration due to broken thermometers. Mercury is
a potent neurotoxin, which builds up in the environment -
especially aquatic ecosystems- and affects the brain, spinal
cord, kidneys and liver. It is especially harmful to pregnant
women and children.
Civil society in South Africa has been lobbying governments
to consider alternative technologies instead of incineration.
A campaign that is of special concern is the continent wide
push by the cement industries to burn hazardous wastes in
cement kilns (incinerators) in South Africa.
According to Llewellyn Leonard of groundWork, the South African
government has sent out varied signals on their position on
burning of hazardous wastes. On the one hand we find that
KwaZulu-Natal government officials have requested a local
cement industry to burn agricultural waste such as obsolete
pesticides and herbicides. While on the other hand we have
the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT)
holding workshops to establish national implementation plans
for the management and strategies to clean up and prevent
future accumulation of unwanted stocks of pesticides under
the Africa stockpiles programme.
Leonard stated that, “Studies have shown that waste
incinerators are cancer factories, generating hundreds of
pollutant releases such as dioxins and heavy metals that cause
a variety of health problems, including cancer, reproductive
and developmental disorder, and immune system dysfunction.
In fact, governments have agreed under the Stockholm Convention
on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) to work for the continuing
minimization and ultimate elimination of dioxins and other
POP-byproducts of incineration, so as to protect public health
and the environment.”
According to Karen Read of South Durban Community Environmental
Alliance (SDCEA), “South Africa has signed and ratified
the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants
(POPs) [2], which states that using incinerators
and cement kilns to burn POPs waste or other halogenated wastes
has the potential to generate and release large quantities
of unintentional POPs such as dioxins and furans into the
environment [3]. It is therefore flabbergasting
that governments have considered using incineration to treat
waste and not go to the source of the problem. The Stockholm
Convention also gives preferential treatment for the use of
non combustion-based approaches to the management of waste,
including the disposal of stockpiles of hazardous waste.”
According to Zini Mokhine of Injiya, “While civil society
welcomes government’s decision to ratify the Stockholm
Convention on POPs, it is of serious concern that the South
African government has considered using the cement industry
to dispose of POP’s related waste.”
According to Claire Taylor of Earthlife Africa, “It
is hoped that government will meet the obligations enshrined
in the text of the Stockholm Convention and not go against
this by allowing the burning of hazardous waste such as herbicides
and pesticides in cement kilns and incinerators.”
According to Morgan Griffith of the Wildlife and Environment
Society of South Africa (WESSA) Eastern Cape, the South African
government is failing to protect people’s health and
the environment at large from harmful chemical assaults resulting
from unsustainable and irresponsible practices such as incineration.
Civil society calls on the South African government to put
a stop to the use of dangerously polluting technology whose
operations will virtually undermine the objectives of the
POPS treaty.
For more information please contact:
- Morgan Griffiths, WESSA (Environmental officer) at 041
5859606
- Llewellyn Leonard, groundWork (Waste campaigns coordinator)
at 082-353-5029
- Zini Mokhine, Injiya ya Uri community (Zero Waste) at
011 9856234
- Claire Tylor, Earthlife Africa, (Sustainable energy and
climate change) at 011 339 3662
- Karen Read, South Durban Community Environmental Alliance
(SDCEA) at 031 4611991
See Factsheet about
Burning Hazardous Waste in Cement Kilns
See Myths and Facts
about Cement Kilns
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[1] GAIA is a worldwide alliance of over
500 non-profit organizations, research and policy advocacy
institutions, citizen pressure groups and individuals from
77 countries who recognize that our planet's finite resources,
fragile biosphere, and the health of people and other living
beings are endangered by polluting and inefficient production
practices and health-threatening disposal methods. Launched
in December 2000 in South Africa, GAIA and its members are
involved in local and regional battles against incinerators,
as well as many dozens of projects to put Zero Waste principles
and systems into action. Please log on to www.no-burn.org
for more information about GAIA and its work. Contact for
GAIA Secretariat (Gigie at +632-9290376 or 436 4733 - Philippines).
[2] The Stockholm Convention is a global
treaty to protect human health and the environment from persistent
organic pollutants (POPs). POPs are chemicals that remain
intact in the environment for long periods, become widely
distributed geographically, accumulate in the fatty tissue
of living organisms and are toxic to humans and wildlife.
POPs circulate globally and can cause damage wherever they
travel. In implementing the Convention, Governments will take
measures to eliminate or reduce the release of POPs into the
environment.
[3] Stockholm Convention document, Annex
C, Unintentional Production, part 2: Source categories
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