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GREEN
groups have intensified the campaign against global
warming with the resounding call to stop wasteful
consumption and disposal to reverse the impact of
climate change, which is now severely affecting the
poorest of the poor in developing countries, including
the Philippines.
Led by
the waste and pollution watchdog EcoWaste Coalition and
the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA),
environmental activists and participants from various
schools, community and nongovernment organizations
marked the World Environment Day at the historic Plaza
Miranda in Quiapo, Manila, Wednesday, pitching for a
“zero-waste” approach in protecting the environment.
Film
actress Chin-Chin Gutierrez, recognized by Time magazine
as one of the “Asian Heroes” for her environmental
advocacy, graced the event, holding a placard that says
“Go Zero Waste for Zero Warming” next to a huge globe
depicting a hurting planet.
“I hope
that this timely activity will create a much-needed dent
in the people’s environmental awareness and encourage
our citizens, especially those who occupy critical posts
in decision-making, to act with care and vigilance to
trim down our climate footprint,” said Gutierrez,
founding chairman and president of Alaga Lahat, a
partner group of the EcoWaste Coalition and GAIA.
The
dumping and burning of discards add to the warming of
the planet, according to Manny Calonzo of EcoWaste
Coalition and GAIA.
“Worse
yet, by destroying materials that could be reused,
recycled or composted, these dirty disposal practices
drive a climate-changing cycle that demands new
resources to be extracted, processed, transported, and
dumped or burned in our communities,” Calonzo said.
The
event coincided with the recent release in the US of
Stop Trashing the Climate, a report published by the
Institute for Local Self-Reliance (Washington, D.C.),
Eco-Cycle (Boulder, Colorado) and GAIA (Berkeley,
California) that affirms zero waste as a top
climate-protection strategy.
Stop
Trashing the Climate documents the link between climate
change and unsustainable patterns of consumption and
wasting, dispels myths about the climate benefits of
landfill- gas recovery and waste incineration, and
offers a road map for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The
report provides key policy recommendations such as
setting up of local and national zero-waste targets,
eliminating subsidies to waste disposal, and ending the
practice of waste incineration. The report calls for an
end to the practice of landfilling and incinerating
biodegradable materials, thereby preventing potent
greenhouse-gas emissions.
The main
findings of the report include:
•
Preventing waste and expanding reuse, recycling and
composting programs—a combined approach known as “zero
waste”—is one of the fastest, cheapest and most
effective strategies we can use to protect the
climate. It also offers at least 10 times the amount of
jobs as landfilling and incineration.
•
Landfills are huge emitters of methane, a potent
greenhouse gas, and the global-warming impact of these
methane emissions in the short term are three times
greater than reported by the US Environmental Protection
Agency.
•
Incinerators emit more carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour
than coal-fired power plants and waste three to five
times more energy than recycling conserves. This means
that incinerating recyclable materials is akin to
spending three to five units of energy to make one unit.
•
Significantly reducing the amount of materials that we
bury in landfills and burn in incinerators has climate
benefits comparable to closing one-fifth of all
US
coal-fired power plants, the largest single source of
greenhouse-gas emissions in the country.
• The
one-way flow of materials from extraction, processing
and consumption to disposal directly contributes to
climate change. Waste disposal is linked to more than
one-third of all US greenhouse-gas emissions; new
resources must be continually extracted to replace those
buried or burned.
The
World Environment Day event in Plaza Miranda drew the
participation of Alaga Lahat, Buklod Tao, Cavite Green
Coalition, Concerned Citizens Against Pollution, Earth
Renewal Project, Earth UST, Global Alliance for
Incinerator Alternatives, Health Care Without Harm,
Krusada para sa Kalikasan, Mascomthea, Mother Earth
Foundation, November 17 Movement, Sagip Pasig Movement
and Sanib Lakas ng Inang Kalikasan. |
