[CPEO-MEF] Learn Not to Burn,Protect Public Health and the Environment

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Learn Not to Burn,
Protect Public Health and the Environment

Environmentalists recently released a report that seeks to empower
communities on strategies to combat toxic pollution emanating from
incinerators of hazardous waste.    Co-authored by Elizabeth Crowe of
the US-based Chemical Weapons Working Group and Mike Schade of the
Citizens Environmental Coalition, Learning Not to Burn: A Primer for
Citizens on Alternatives to Burning Hazardous Waste offers citizens the
information they need to act and push for safer, cleaner
non-incineration technologies for disposal of hazardous and military
waste.

According to the report, a comprehensive solution to our hazardous waste
problems must involve addressing the problem at its source:  using
non-toxic materials in product manufacturing, and employing principles
of ?zero waste? to ensure greater sustainability.  But in order to get
rid of existing hazardous wastes, or in combination with efforts toward
clean production practices, non-incineration technologies can be used to
destroy hazardous wastes without destroying public health.   Designed
for citizens and grassroots activists, ?Learning Not to Burn? seeks to
fill the gap in information about these technologies.  It includes
sections on organizing strategies, profiles of alternatives to
incineration, and information resources and links.

?We don?t have to accept producing and burning hazardous wastes, we have
to build the bridge that will lead us to a world where we can live free
from the threat of exposures to toxic chemicals,? wrote the authors.
Crowe and Shade also said that, ?by using safer hazardous waste disposal
technologies, as an interim step to, or in parallel with, efforts toward
clean production and zero waste, we can help bring about environmental
justice and a clean environment for ourselves and for future
generations.?

While there are many references to U.S. laws and regulations, the report
contains basic concepts that are applicable in other countries
struggling for safer ways to handle and dispose rising hazardous
waste.   To illustrate the potential for implementation of non-burn
technologies, the primer looks at the experiences of the Chemical
Weapons Working Group and the movement for safe chemical weapons
destruction, and the Citizens Environmental Coalition and the Kandid
Coalition?s campaign to stop the burning of hazardous wastes produced by
Eastman Kodak at their headquarters in Rochester, New York.

The primer is now available for free online at the Chemical Weapons
Working Group website at http://www.cwwg.org.  For more information,
contact Elizabeth Crowe at (859) 986-0868 or by email at
elizabeth@cwwg.org.

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