PRESS RELEASE:

Philippines urged to speak out in favor of recycling at climate meet in China

4 October 2010, Quezon City.  As government representatives converge in Tianjin, China for a crucial week-long climate meeting starting today, an environmental health and justice alliance urged negotiators from the Philippines and elsewhere to acknowledge the huge climate and livelihood benefits of recycling, and to recognize and respect informal recyclers. The Tianjin climate change conference is the last leg of negotiations before the final summit in Cancun, Mexico in November 2010.



“We urge the delegates to incorporate Zero Waste strategies such as waste prevention, reduction, reusing, recycling and composting into the global climate action plan to address greenhouse (GHG) gases and other toxic releases in the waste sector,” Manny Calonzo, Co-Coordinator of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA).

“At the same time, we join the recyclers, including the waste pickers, in seeking recognition and support for their role in cutting GHG discharges through the retrieval of reusable and recyclable discards from the waste stream,” he added.

To raise negotiators’ awareness, GAIA will release this coming Wednesday in Tianjin a report entitled “Respect for Recyclers: Protecting the Climate through Zero Waste.”

The report written by Neil Tangri, GAIA’s US-based Waste and Climate Campaigner, warned against the promotion of “waste-to-energy” and landfill gas technologies as “climate solutions.”

Mass burn incinerators and incinerators in disguise such as gasification, plasma, pyrolysis and “refuse-derived fuel” (RDF) technologies are severe sources of GHG releases, emitting 33% more carbon dioxide than coal-fired power plants would to produce the same amount of energy, the report said.

“Yet rather than supporting [Zero Waste] efforts, climate funds such as the Clean Development Mechanism are subsidizing incinerators and landfill gas systems, which compete directly with recycling and increase emissions, unemployment, and public costs.   A new, non-market, climate finance mechanism is needed to support the formalization and expansion of the informal recycling sector,” Tangri noted.

The growing alliance pushing for the recognition and respect of recyclers, estimated at 15 million worldwide, drew the support of a Catholic Church leader who took part in a recent workshop by the EcoWaste Coalition that delved on the health and safety issues facing the informal waste sector.

“We are called upon to recognize our brothers and sisters who work very hard to reclaim and recycle tons of valuable resources from the bins, trucks and dumps,” said Caloocan Bishop Deogracias S. Iñiguez, Jr. and concurrent head of the Public Affairs Committee of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

“As we struggle against climactic crises afflicting the planet, let us give recyclers the respect and recognition they deserve for their service to the environment and society that we often take for granted,” he added.