The ten steps suggested in the report for Zero Waste at the local level ought to be made the Hippocratic oath of sort for all municipal corporations and municipalities world over. Very soon from a situation where we do not have even one completely Zero waste city, there would be several cities that would be fully implementing every aspect of a Zero Waste.
The foreword of the Report begins with quite a pithy viewpoint from Dr Paul Connet, a Chemist: "It's not waste until it's wasted". Effort, which has gone in preparing this valuable work, would make it a historical document and go a long way in creating a global movement for Zero Waste. The rigour manifest in this document would make sure that the effort would not be wasted.
The document cites case studies from India showcasing waste to energy projects of Australian company, Energy Developments Limited in Chennai, Bhopal, Jaipur and Mumbai although it has missed the mention of Delhi and Kanpur waste to energy projects which have been shelved following campaign by environmental groups.
"Resources up in Flames : The Economic pitfalls of Incineration Versus a Zero Waste Approach in the Global South" is a report by Brenda Platt, Institute of Local Self-Reliance for Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA).
On 21 April, 2004 over 110 individuals and groups from 43 countries are joining the global launch of this GAIA's report.
GAIA urges the Indian Government to refrain from building incinerators and to implement national and community zero waste plans. GAIA is an alliance of over 360 non-profit groups and individuals from 66 countries, including India, working to phase out all forms of waste incineration and to promote clean production, zero waste and sustainable waste management systems.
GAIA's full Zero Waste vision includes recycling, but also goes beyond recycling. We will never solve our "waste problem" only at the back end, so to fully implement Zero Waste, we need to combine recycling and waste diversion with upstream approaches to reduce the total volume and toxicity of materials used.
Municipal waste incineration is a costly, polluting, unsustainable and outmoded approach to waste management. However, a comprehensive zero waste approach not only keeps the valuable resources contained in municipal waste (such as paper, compostables, glass, etc.) in the local economy, but also creates job opportunities in many sectors. Residual incinerator ash contains many toxic materials and presents a grave public health threat.
Many pollutants from incinerators have been associated with significant environmental and human health effects.
Incinerators are a major source of mercury, which is a powerful neurotoxin, impairing motor, sensory and cognitive functions. Acid gases, such as hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen bromide, and sulfur oxides, can damage incinerators, primarily by corroding air pollution control equipment. They also can cause or exacerbate a wide range of human health problems such as especially respiratory disorders and are acid rain precursors. Incinerator emissions have also been shown to be mutagenic, meaning that they alter human DNA.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), incinerators are the leading source of dioxin into the global environment. Dioxin is the most toxic manmade substance known; dioxin causes cancer and neurological damage, and disrupts reproductive systems, thyroid systems, respiratory systems, and other serious health effects.
A newly published study of adolescent children who lived near two incinerators found: Elevated blood levels of PCBs, dioxins and metabolites of volatile organic compounds in the children’s blood; Delayed sexual maturation; Delayed breast development in girls; Delayed genital development in boys; Reduced testicular volume among the boys. In Japan, incinerators are estimated to cause 93 percent of dioxin air emissions; in Switzerland, 85 percent; in Great Britain, 79 percent; and in Denmark, 70 percent. Authors of the 1999 European Dioxin Inventory note, "Despite considerable effort having been spent during the last years to decrease the emissions from municipal waste incinerators, this source type still dominates the input of [dioxins] into the atmosphere."
Incineration is an unacceptable way of addressing municipal waste management. These approaches have proven capable of reducing the waste going to landfill by as much as 85%. Nevertheless, additional measures will be needed to completely close the materials cycle. Programs such as Extended Producer
Responsibility, under which firms take responsibility for their products over their entire lifecycles, encourage producers to redesign their products for easy and safe recycling. A comprehensive approach towards clean production in manufacturing facilities is necessary for preventing the environmental, public health, and economic burdens of industrial and municipal wastes.
GAIA calls upon the Indian government and its business and funding partners to stop the destructive practice of incinerating waste and shift instead to least-cost waste prevention systems that conserve resources and enhance environmental justice and sustainable development for our country.
One can access the complete report on this URL
http://www.no-burn.org/ResourcesupinFlames.zip. It makes an interesting reading sans any dryness. The way it outlines the history of resource destroying Incinerators, which were initially referred, as “Destructor” is quite fascinating. This report is a must read for all who are concerned with waste management in the present times. Zero Waste as a new approach is gaining global ground. This vision can be termed as the bedrock of sustainable development.
Zero waste vision entails "Redesigning Products and Packaging for Durability, Reuse and Recyclability"
Instead of perpetuating our throw-away society, products would be designed using fewer material types that could be easily reused or repaired when they have outlived their usefulness.
It means "Creating Jobs from Discards"
Wasting materials in a landfill also wastes jobs that could be created if those resources were preserved.
According to another ground-breaking report of Brenda Platt, "On a per-ton basis, sorting and processing recyclables alone sustains ten times more jobs than landfilling or incineration."
Another report titled "Recycling Economic Development through Scrap-Based Manufacturing" by Michael Lewis, some recycling-based paper mills and recycled plastic product manufacturers employ 60 times more workers on a per-ton basis than do landfills. The report adds, "Each recycling step a community takes locally means more jobs, more business expenditures on supplies and services, and more money circulating in the local economy through spending and tax payments."
It calls for "Producer Responsibility"
Zero Waste puts the responsibility for materials entering the waste stream on the front-end with the manufacturer, not on the consumer at the back-end of the product’s life. The end result is that manufacturers redesign products to reduce material consumption and facilitate reuse, recycling and recovery.
The Zer waste vision demans '"True Cost" Accounting'
The price of a product does not currently reflect the full costs of the environmental degradation and public health impacts associated with the virgin resource extraction, processing, manufacture, transportation, and disposal of that product. When the market prices begin to include such costs, the more environmentally-friendly product will also be the less expensive.
Investing in Infrastructure, Not Landfills
In many communities, strategies like unit-based pricing for garbage collection (commonly known as Pay-As-You-Throw) have created tremendous incentives for residents and businesses to reduce waste and have resulted in higher landfill diversion rates. Rather than using the tax base to build new landfills or incinerators, communities have also invested in recycling, composting, and reuse facilities. In some cases, communities have created integrated discard "malls" where various recycling and reuse businesses coexist in a location where consumers can come to drop-off any unwanted item.
It seeks "Ending Tax Payer Subsidies for Wasteful and Polluting Industries"
Pollution, energy consumption and environmental destruction start at the point of virgin resource extraction and processing. Our tax dollars subsidize many industries that make products from virgin materials, such as timber and mining. Zero Waste proposes ending these federal subsidies to enable recycled and reused products to compete on an even playing field. Without the subsidies, the market can determine which are truly the less expensive products.
Marti Matsch of Eco-Cycle, an organisation based in Boulder, Colorado is right when he says, zero waste is a new systems approach and it is gaining global gound, one wonders will it not be too late by the time it gains ground in India.
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