GREENPEACE CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL BAN ON WASTE INCINERATORS

25 April 2001

St Petersburg, Russia: Fifteen Greenpeace activists were arrested in St Petersburg this morning, after climbing an incinerator stack and blocking access to the plant. Four Greenpeace activists climbed the St. Petersburg state-owned incinerator on Bely Island and hung a banner that accused the government of polluting the Baltic with persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and other highly toxic chemicals. Another nine protestors blocked the bridge to the incinerator island preventing trucks laden with contaminated fly ash from the chimney entering or leaving the plant.

Built in 1997, the incinerator burns sewage sludge from the state's communal and industrial waste water treatment plant at the same location, on the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea.

"Governments and industry are fully aware that emissions from incinerators are dangerous and can cause serious environmental and health problems both to people living near them and thousands of kilometres from the source. Incineration is nothing less than a lazy and irresponsible way for them to mask today's waste problems and pass the toxic burden they release on to future generations," said Greenpeace campaigner Wytze van der Naald.

Though the company refused official requests from Greenpeace to study releases from the incinerator, the environmental organisation managed to take a sample of ash from the top of the chimney and from inside the incinerator. Analysis confirmed that the top of the chimney is contaminated with organic chlorine compounds and ash inside the plant contains high levels of toxic metals such as cadmium and chromium. (1) This ash is either dumped in landfill or used by the construction industry to make bricks.

Incinerators, including those for sewage sludge, are known to release POPs, such as dioxins, into the environment via gases and ash (2). Exposure to the releases has been linked to a number of serious health impacts such as lung, throat, liver and stomach cancers as well as respiratory problems and heart disease. Studies show that health impacts among children are of particular concern. (3)

World governments, including all Baltic countries, are so concerned about the impacts POPs are having on the environment and human health they have agreed to eliminate them under the impending international treaty to be signed in Stockholm in May 2001.

Greenpeace is calling on all governments to act on their agreement and start eliminating all POPs from the planet. This means stopping all existing POPs sources, including dioxins. To achieve this, all existing incinerators must be closed, any plans for new incinerators must be scrapped and investment made into other, safer methods of waste disposal.

"Words are not enough to clean the environment. In view of the facts, any self-respecting government acting in the public interest would shut down these dangerous methods of waste management and scrap any plans to build new ones. Until they do, POPs pollutants will continue to build up in the environment and in the bodies of every living being on Earth," added van der Naald.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Interviews with Greenpeace campaigners or the crew of the MV Greenpeace call:
Matilda Bradshaw, Greenpeace International press, + 31 6 535 04701 (m)

Wytze van der Naald, Greenpeace international toxics campaigner,.+31 6270 00 059
Alexey Kiselev, Greenpeace Russia: +7 901 7705 786
Footage and stills of the MV Greenpeace, images of pollution in the Baltic and today's action are available on request
Video + 31 20524 9543
Photo + 31 20524 9580

The action followed the release of a Greenpeace report, POPs in the Baltic, Monday that confirms levels of dioxins and other POPs, among the most dangerous chemicals known to science, are above critical in the Baltic region.

Greenpeace will continue to tour the Baltic region over the next month on board the Greenpeace vessel, MV Greenpeace, highlighting the problems of toxic pollution in the area. The Baltic tour is a culmination of a three year long tour exposing toxic pollution worldwide and will end in Stockholm as the POPs treaty is signed.

(1) Sampling results available here

(2) The United Nations Environment Programme has listed waste incineration, including for sewage sludge as having the potential for comparatively high formation and release of dioxins, furans, hexachlorobenzenes and PCBs in the final draft text of the upcoming Stockholm Convention.

(3) Greenpeace report Health and Incineration, 2001