December 16, 2008

Stop Waste Incineration Petition to European Parliament

Read The Stop Waste Incineration Petition to European Parliament http://www.petitiononline.com/noburn08/
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To: European Parliament

The European Parliament will vote on the proposal to reclassify incineration as waste recovery.
This will put burning of waste on the same level as recycling.

With this petition we invite You to read, and consider the following issues:


• In terms of pollution, even applying the better available technologies, waste incineration leave in the atmosphere a big deal of seriously health demaging substances like dioxins and microscopic (nano-) particles. Many of this polluters have certain carcinogenic and even genotoxic effects on populations. Other ones have been recognized recently and are still matter of studies in terms of health conditioning. It is not legal to fill European Countries and Citizens with elements we don't know the effect.

• Lots of scientists, doctors, associations and European Citizens have pronounced against the incineration and have asked the introduction of a moratorium in the building of new plants.

• “Waste-to-electricity” incinerators, on the other hand, produce more climate-damaging greenhouse gases than a traditional power station.

• In economical terms, the amount of energy needed to produce new materials is much higher than the one we obtain incinerating the garbage. Re-using them is most convenient in terms of energy saving.

• The material resources of the land are ending and, unfortunately, we are implied with their exhaustion. After incineration and landfilling we can not make remunerative use of them any more.

• Redefining incineration as recovery will encourage exports of hundreds of thousands of tons of waste from EU-15 to be burnt in incinerators in central and eastern European states. Some governments are for this very reason vocally opposing the Commission’s proposal.

• The recycling of one ton of municipal waste saves on average 0.8 tons of CO2-equivalent of greenhouse gases.

• Recycling creates many more jobs. Ironically, the Commission’s proposals argue that “recycling needs 10,000 tonnes of waste needs up to 250 jobs, compared with 20 to 40 jobs needed if the waste is incinerated and about 10 for landfill”.

• If incineration is classified as recovery, then there will be much less of an incentive for industry to innovate towards products that avoid waste or are recyclable.

• This will definitely not be in line with the Commission’s publicized will to promote Europe’s competitiveness and create new jobs.

• Investments in expensive and large-scale incinerators oblige towns and regions to provide huge amounts of waste for many years, so that the investment pays off. This blocks efforts to reduce or recycle waste.

Conclusion. The Commission’s proposals, as they stand, would perpetuate the unsustainable and inefficient approach to Europe’s waste problem for many years to come.
We do not need such an EU waste policy. We need an EU waste prevention and recycling policy that will maximize our resource efficiency and minimize our impacts on the climate.
We need a policy that would also protect our environment and leave more resources available for the rest of the world and the future generations.



For all those reasons (and many others), we ask that:


• Incineration must not be reclassified as recovery.

• Incineration and landfilling of all waste that can be reused, recycled or composted must be phased out.

• Effective measures for increased prevention and recycling of waste must be introduced.

• The EU must push manufacturers to make products more durable, more reusable and more recyclable.

• EU member states must maintain the prerogative to reject imports of waste for landfilling and incineration.

• EU structural and cohesion funds must be systematically focused on waste prevention, sorting and recycling.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

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The Stop waste incineration Petition to European Parliament was created by Comitato per Taranto and written by Luigi Oliva (publuigi@gmail.com). This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.
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Deadly Particles (PM2.5), European Parliament, Lisbon Treaty, Poolbeg Incinerator, Dublin Bay Incinerator

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