Belgium. The Belgian Platform Environment and Health, in cooperation with environmental group ABLLO, lodged an appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court on 21 June 2002 to nullify the license issued by the authorities to Indaver for its proposed 466,000 tons/year incinerator in Beveren.

(Fred de Baere, info@milieugezondheid.be)

Bulgaria. Dioxins released during the burning of SS-23 missiles will disperse not only in Bulgaria, but much farther, said the Stara Zagora Civil Alliance. The Alliance of 11 NGOs warned that the missiles should in no way be burnt because the risks are huge and the consequences will affect the whole Balkan region for years ahead.

(Pari Daily, 26 July 2002)

Canada. Citizens from Northern Ontario (and neighbouring Abitibi-Temiscamingue, Quebec) hand-delivered 20,000 letters to Ontario's Ministry of Environment as the public comment period on the controversial Bennett toxic waste incinerator drew to a close. The letters were gathered as part of the largest submission campaign in environmental assessment history. In all, over 60,000 submissions opposing Bennett's plans to import US and Mexican waste were collected. The letter writing campaign grew out of the limitations placed on public input. As the comments are supposed to be limited to technical issues relating Bennett EA submission, citizens formed local education committees and letter-writing teams. The teams begged free advice from technical experts from across the US and Canada. Volunteers then branched out throughout the region conducting kitchen table seminars on the technical threats posed by the incinerator Letter-writing teams were formed in communities such as Cochrane, Matheson, Kirkland Lake. Toronto, Ottawa, Burke's Falls, Orillia and Hunstville. Six thousand letters were gathered among rural residents in the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region of Quebec. Public Concern Temiskaming says the overwhelming response from the letter-writing campaign is a warning to the Ernie Eves government not to attempt to push the Bennett incinerator through.

(PCB Digest, 7 September 2002)

Canada/International. The International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN) organized an International Day of Action on 23 May 2002 to urge governments to ratify the Stockholm Convention of POPs by September this year, before the conclusion of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), which will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa. By taking this decisive action by September, governments can ensure that this historic treaty will enter into force and become internationally binding ninety days later, on the New Year, 2003.

(Morag Carter, mcarter@ipen.org)

China. Greenpeace activists slammed plans by Hong Kong authorities to dispose of potentially cancer-causing contaminated mud at the future site of the territory's Disneyland theme park. The group accused the government of neglecting the environment and the health of its residents for the sake of economic benefit. The protest coincided with a meeting in the Legislative Council on 19 April 2002 in which lawmakers discussed a proposal to allow the burning of 30,000 cubic meters of polluted soil dredged from a shipyard near the planned Disney theme park site.

(Allen Chan, allen.chan@dialb.greenpeace.org)

Congo. Each year, from September, CADIC has been undertaking a "waste no-burn" campaign, urging citizens to compost organic waste. The success of its composting campaign in the city of Uvira in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2001-2002 encouraged CADIC to spread its experience to neighboring cities of Bukavu in the province of South-Kivu and Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi, where wastes are piling up and thrown in open dumps.

(Swedi Elongo, cadic@cbinf.org)

India. On 13 April 2002 over 150 ragpickers went on a peace-walk with a charter of demands to Mr. Mukesh Meena, New Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police, for safer recycling and working conditions. They demanded that beatings and petty abuse must be eliminated, in order for them to work better and be able to recycle the waste of the city in a less hazardous way. The action was triggered by the violent police beating on 25 March this year of three ragpickers working and living in and around Connaught Place. Subsequently, with the facilitation of Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group, which works with a wide network of ragpickers and kabaris in New Delhi, a formal complaint was made to the police authorities.

(Bharati Chaturvedi, bharatich@hotmail.com)

Ireland. The environmental organisation, An Taisce, has reacted to Environment Minister Cullen's plans to fast-track planning on waste by threatening legal proceedings. The organisation said it would seek legal advice on the constitutionality of attempts to remove local democracy from the waste-management.

(The Irish Times, 13 August 2002)

Japan. Various groups sponsored a day-long symposium on 21 September 2002 in Yokohama on waste incineration and the privatization of waste management. Participants discussed the shortcomings of the government's policy for a recycling-based society and the plan to privatize waste management as disclosed by the governor of the Kanagawa prefecture. There are about 3,000 municipal waste incinerators in Japan and an unknown number of industrial incinerators, which emit tons of deadly polluting gases every day. Since 1997, the government has shifted its policy from "recycle more" to "incinerate for energy," constructing bigger and more complicated "waste-to-energy" incinerators.

(Setsuko Yamamoto, watcherkam@par.odn.ne.jp)

Lebanon. Greenpeace activists invaded on 10 July 2002 the Ministry of Environment lobby hall to protest the so-called new guidelines on medical waste treatment, issued recently by the Ministry of Environment and approved by the government. Greenpeace condemned the failing of the ministry to take a clear stand against incineration and rather promote waste incineration as an option to deal with hazardous waste.

(Zeina al-Hajj, gp.med@greenpeace.org.lb)

Pakistan. The Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) recently launched a joint venture with a local private company Strongman for the production and marketing of hospital/ biomedical waste incinerators. WWF-Pakistan has taken up the issue with the PCSIR and the Ministry of Environment. In its letter to the Council and the Ministry on 24 September 2002, WWF raised the severe public health threats linked to incineration and the alternate non-burning treatment technologies successfully used in many countries. The local office of WWF urged that an obsolete and highly polluting technology should not be introduced and promoted as the ultimate solution to hospital waste in Pakistan.

(Hammad Naqi Khan, hnaqi@wwf.org.pk)

Philippines. Twenty-three member groups of the Ecological Waste Coalition gathered on 13 September 2002 to update each other on the state of solid waste management in Metro Manila and nearby provinces. The ineffective implementation of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, which emphasizes on waste prevention, segregation at source, recycling and composting, has infuriated Coalition members who are considering filing class suits against government officials for violating the law.

(Roel Andag, r_andag@yahoo.com)

Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rican Surgeons' College (CMCPR) warned about the adverse health and environmental effects for the island and the entire Caribbean region of a proposed Thermoselect incinerator that would process 840,000 tons of trash annually. The proposed incinerator, which would be the largest in the world, would cost US$400 million to build and would be located in Puerto Rico's southern Caguas province. Toxic emissions would also affect the Dominican Republic and the rest of the Caribbean because pollutants would be carried and spread by winds, said Carmen Ortiz, CMCPR environmental health committee officer.

(EFE News Service, 23 July 2002)

South Africa. groundWork, together with GAIA and HCWH, organized a three-day civil society workshop on health care waste and incineration on 5-7 April 2002, with participants from Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland. A day-long dialogue with government officials followed the workshop on 8 April where civil society representatives from Southern Africa called for a ban on incineration to be implemented by 2006. The workshop led to the adoption of the Isipingo Declaration on eliminating the harmful impacts of health care waste and incinerators in Southern African communities.

(Llewelyn Leonard, llewelyn@groundwork.org.za)

South Africa. groundWork has taken government and a private waste company, Compass Waste Services, to court in a bid to have the poorly operated Ixopo incinerator closed down. The NGO took legal action after attempting for two and a half years to get government to take decisive steps to protect the health of the surrounding community and the broader public.

(Linda Ambler, Linda@groundwork.org.za)

South Africa. Under the banner "People's Action for Corporate Accountability," over 100 participants from 30 countries concluded a week-long conference on the eve of the World Summit on Sustainable Development by calling on governments to take action for citizens' rights and binding rules for corporations, including legal liability for the environmental and social impacts of their activities. Conference participants heard about industrial pollution, toxic waste dumping, incineration, and destructive fossil fuel production and mining activities carried out by major corporations in local communities around the world. The conference was co-sponsored by groundWork, Corporate Europe Observatory, CorpWatch , Earthlife Africa, Environmental Monitoring Group, Friends of the Earth International, Greenpeace, South African Exchange Programme on Environmental Justice and the Third World Network.

(Bobby Peek, bobby@groundwork.org)

Taiwan. Fifteen residents' associations and non-government organizations launched on 13 September 2002 the Taiwan Anti-Incinerator Alliance (TAIA) in a historic conference held at the Taitung City Hall, which drew the attendance of some 65 participants, including groups fighting incinerators in Hualien, Meinung, Taipei, Taitung and Yulin and the Manila-based GAIA. The Taiwan Watch Institute was designated Secretariat of TAIA. Following the conference, TAIA members joined the public hearing, which unanimously adopted a resolution asking the county government to stop the ongoing construction of a 300 tons/day waste burner costing NT$2.1 billion (US$64 million). Taiwan has 21 municipal waste burners in operation and another 11 which are undergoing construction or environmental impact assessment.

(Herlin Hsieh, hyacinthhshieh@yahoo.com.tw)

United Kingdom. About 100 environmental activists invaded the site of a new incinerator in Basingstoke, climbed a crane, chained themselves to machinery and staged a protest on the roof of a building on June 17,2002. Greenpeace incineration campaigner Mark Strutt said "People from across the country have come here to say enough is enough. We don't want more incineration to poison our food with cancer causing chemicals. We must ban incinerators now." Sheffield Against Incineration campaigner Andy Booth said. "This is a clear message to the Government and councils throughout the UK, not to mention the rest of the world. Incineration is simply not an option in the modern world and the global feeling against them is growing all the time, as today proves." Members of the Communities Against Toxics, Friends of the Earth Derby, Friends of the Earth Essex, Hull Against the Incinerator, London Against Incineration, No Incinerators For Europe, Sandwich Action Group for the Environment, Swerve the SWERF, Residents Against Bernard Incinerator Damage and Zero Waste Fingal also organized activities to urge authorities to move away from waste incineration.

(Mark Strutt, mark.strutt@uk.greenpeace.org , Phil Scott, sage.kent@britishlibrary.net, Dorothy Skrytek, dot@theadora.screaming.net, Nikki Clarke, nikki@swervetheswerf.freeserve.co.uk)

USA. Students and community members from across New York State took part in the first ever Statewide Kodak Day of Action for Clean Air, organized by the Citizens' Environmental Coalition (CEC), on 25 April 2002. Citizens and students organized activities to raise awareness in their communities and on their campuses about Kodak's toxic emissions and the alternatives to incineration. Volunteers distributed leaflets and arranged media events at retail outlets that sell Kodak products.

(Mike Schade, cecwny@buffnet.net)