7/10 Waste Incineration & Landfills Threaten Med Area

[the.greenbase@green2.greenpeace.org]

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Original-TO:      World Press 
Original-Cc:      The Greenbase 
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WASTE INCINERATION AND LANDFILLING PLANS  THREATEN SOUTHERN
MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES
 
Press Release-Malta, July 10, 1996 (GP) Plans for waste
incinerators and landfills in southern Mediterranean countries
threaten public health and the environment, a report published
today by the Greenpeace Mediterranean Office said.  
The report, "The Burning Truth - Incineration in the
Mediterranean", said that incinerators and landfills are being
proposed in Malta, Lebanon, Turkey, Israel and other states as
the environmentally acceptable solution to the current waste
crisis. Greenpeace warns that this is nothing but a myth. Waste
incineration is actually a seriously polluting technology.
 
The embedding of waste incineration and landfilling in southern
Mediterranean states would ensure a waste-generating industrial
infrastructure, encourage waste trade and divert capital from
waste prevention and recycling activities. This would also
postpone the introduction of Clean Production policies in the
industrial process and hinder a sustainable future, it added.  
"Under the guise of 'transfer of environmentally-sound
technology for sustainable development', the West's hazardous
and unwanted technologies are now being exported to Malta,
Lebanon, Turkey, Israel and other southern Mediterranean
states," said Dr. Mario Damato of the Greenpeace Mediterranean
Office in Malta. "All countries in the region must be prevented
from falling into the vicious circle of waste production,
incineration and landfilling."  
Regardless of standards and even under ideal condition,
incinerators release toxic substances like heavy metals.
Chlorinated wastes such as PVC plastics are known to be
responsible for highly toxic emissions, including dioxins and
furans. The main route of exposure to dioxin is the food chain,

the Greenpeace report said. Metals regarded as most problematic
in waste incineration are mercury, lead, cadmium, chromium,
arsenic and beryllium, all of which are known or suspected
carcinogens. 
 
Ironically, incinerators require landfills in the ground because
of the ash they produce. This ash is scientifically regarded as
"hazardous waste". Landfilling household and toxic waste only
transfers the problem and does not solve it at all. The toxic
substances in landfills strike back in the form of leachate, a
concentrated toxic fluid that will eventually leak from
landfills into groundwater reservoirs, the Greenpeace report
read.
 

Malta produced in 1992 97,200 tons of household waste (to
increase to 126,400 tons by 2010) and 90,000 tons of industrial
solid waste (to increase  to 100,000 tons by 2010). Authorities
are planning to build an incinerator to solve the problem.
 
Israel produces about 100,000 tons of hazardous waste every
year, and authorities want to incinerate some 45,000 tons of
toxic waste currently stored at the Ramat Hovav site in the
Negev. The planned incinerator is to burn among other things
sewage sludge, used oils, solvents, pesticides, waste rich with
heavy metals, PVC and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The
toxic ash is to be landfilled in the Negev. The country's first
household waste incinerator is to be built in Hadera near Haifa.
Plans exist for a landfill for household waste in the Negev.
 
In Turkey, a hospital and hazardous waste incinerator is being
constructed in Izmit, and it will to operate next September. The
city is a centre of the country's heavy industry. The
incinerator is expected to burn 2600 kg of solid waste per hour
and 1400 kg of waste water per hour. There is also an industrial
and household landfill in Izmit with a superficy of 800.000 m2. 
 
In Lebanon, about 1.4 Mio. tons of household waste and 326,000
tons of industrial waste are produced yearly. The government
made a tragic mistake when it decided end of last year to seek
110 million dollars of foreign loans to implement a misguided
waste management policy.
 
The money is to be used to set up 15 landfills, "modernise and
rehabilitate" the existing landfills, "modernise" the
incinerator in Amrusieh south of Beirut and construct a new
incinerator for hospital waste. Greenpeace has learnt that the
toxic ash of  the Amrusieh incinerator in southern Beirut is
being dumped in the Borj-Hammud landfill in eastern Beirut. 
 
"The governments in the region are looking for short-term, quick
solutions to the waste problem," said Dr. Damato. "They should
rather formulate and implement long-term Clean Production, waste
reduction and recycling policies, a process requiring dedication
and patience."
 
To solve the growing waste crisis in the southern and eastern
Mediterranean countries, Greenpeace calls for:
* an immediate ban on burning waste containing chlorinated
products * plans to phase out existing incinerators and halt the
construction on new ones * a ban on dumping all sorts of toxic
waste in landfills
* formulating and implementing waste prevention, reuse,
recycling and composting of household waste. Financial
incentives for household waste prevention and recycling 
programs.
* formulating and implementing large-scale Clean Production
programs in the industry. Financial incentives to promote the
introduction of Clean Production and not end-of-pipe
technologies (filters, treatment plants, etc.)  

For further information please call: Dr. Mario Damato, Executive
Director of the Greenpeace Mediterranean Office in Malta,
00356-667167; or Press Office Fouad Hamdan, temporarily based in
Hamburg, T 0049-30618-447, Fax 0049-40-30618140, e-mail:
med.media@green2.greenpeace.org
 
Notes to the editors:  The Greenpeace report, which can be
ordered from us, gives details about environmentally-sound
technologies to deal with existing toxic waste stockpiles. It
also includes a list of companies offering alternatives to
hospital waste incineration. Alternative hospital waste
treatment technologies fall into the broad categories of
mechanical treatment, chemical treatment, thermal deactivation,
electro-thermal deactivation, autoclaving, microwaving and
electron beam sterilisation. 
 
Regarding hospital waste, the report suggests that the first
logical step should involve separating out infectious from non-
infectious waste. The other components should be treated
according to the following strategies: implementing waste
separation systems; substituting reusable and durable products;
introducing recycling programs for plastics, paper and metal;
PVC, a widely used plastic in the health care field, must be
phased out and replaced by already existing alternative
products.

 

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