Asia Statement:

Waste Not Asia is a coalition of citizens' groups and individuals from Asia and the Pacific who support a commitment to: a decentralized community-based reuse, recycling and composting programmes that promote materials recovery rather than materials destruction; opposing waste landfills, incinerators and other end-of-pipe interventions; ensure that manufacturers are held responsible for designing products an d packaging that are ecologically sound through every stage of their life cycle; eliminate persistent organic pollutants or POPs and move towards a toxic free future; reduce generation of waste, promote clean production, and move towards a zero waste society.

Whereas Asia is going through a period of rapid economic and industrial development patterned along the lines of the environmentally and socially destructive throwaway society and culture of overconsumption prevalent in the industrialized North;

Whereas the increasing consumption in Asia is resulting in growing mountains of garbage and other wastes which are sought to be disposed in landfills or burnt openly or in incinerators;

Whereas Asia is under siege from multinational corporations, international financial institutions, aid agencies and governments who seek to push material disposal and destruction technologies such as landfills and incinerators;

Whereas indiscriminate dumping and landfilling of unseparated waste is causing severe environmental, social and public health problems which disproportionately impact and dislocate low income neighborhoods and communities;

Whereas many countries are running out of both physical and political space to site new landfills;

Whereas burning waste, with or without the recovery of energy, puts dangerous substances such as toxic metals, dioxins, furans, and and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), into the air and into the residual ash;

Whereas the United Nations Environment Program has identified dioxins, furans and PCBs as persistent organic pollutants requiring priority global action;

Whereas the poor economic and environmental track record of incinerators and landfills in industrialized and developing countries has led to intense public opposition to such technologies;

Whereas many incinerator and landfill proposals have been linked to corruption scandals and undemocratic decision-making processes;

Whereas the disposal and destruction of materials robs future generations of resources, drains local communities of finances and resources, thwarts local economic development and undermines rational approaches to waste management, and concentrate economic benefits in the hands of a few corporations;

Whereas a large informal sector in many Asian countries already exist that provides invaluable service by recovery and recycling;

Whereas incinerators, landfills and other "end-of-pipe" solutions endanger the progressive and superior alternatives that are being pioneered in communities and municipalities around Asia and detract from initiatives to reduce waste and toxics in manufacturing;

Whereas the over-reliance on "end-of-pipe" solutions encourages exploitation via the export of wastes and dirty technologies;

Whereas the investments in landfills and waste destruction technologies are saddling many nations and communities with debilitating debts and undermines poverty alleviation programs;

Whereas lending institutions and international aid and financing agencies, by bankrolling these projects, play a key role in promoting retrogressive waste destruction practices;

Whereas the production and use of unsustainable materials such as PVC (polyvinyl chloride) has led to the poisoning of human health and the environment;

Whereas several disasters AD such as the Payatas dumpsite collapse in the Philippines and the continuing disaster of Japanese dioxin emissions AD hav e indicated the futility of "end-of-pipe" solutions;

Whereas the presence of dioxins, furans and other chemicals in breast milk and human bodies is a form of chemical trespass that threaten the well-being of particularly vulnerable populations namely fetuses and infants;

Whereas this chemical trespass violates women's fundamental rights to bear healthy children and to breast feed;

THEREFORE, we demand that:
Multilateral, bilateral and private aid and lending institutions including Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), USAID, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank: end funding for materials destruction methods, including incineration and related disposal technologies; cease providing secretive, distorted and biased prescriptions on waste management to governments.

The UN and affiliated bodies: condemn and end the promotion of incinerators and other materials destruction technologies;

Our governments: ban new incinerators and phase-out existing ones; promote materials recovery rather than materials destruction; support local initiatives which benefit communities rather than corporations; open all decisions on waste management to full public participation and transparency at every stage of the process; ensure waste solutions are democratically decided and socially just; provide avoided disposal costs to communities and businesses which divert recyclable and compostable materials from landfills; end hidden subsidies for landfills and incinerators; prioritize waste reduction at source, clean production, pollution prevention and sustainable material use; phase-out unsustainable materials such as PVC and other chlorinated compounds; support the demand for elimination of POPs in the ongoing treaty negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Program; track the elimination of POPs by determining levels of dioxins and furans and other chemicals in the food chain and in mothers' breast milk on a regular basis.

Adopted by the following groups 29 July 2000, Bangkok, Thailand:

Japan POPs Elimination Network (Japan)
Greenpeace AD Thailand, Philippines, India, Hong Kong, Japan
Von Hernandez - Ecological Waste Coalition (Philippines)
Eero Brillantes - Landfill Watch (Philippines)
Junilyn Silvestre - Clean Air Coalition (Philippines)
Waste Not (USA)
Essential Action (USA)
Recycling Association of Guam DISHA (India)
Thanal (India)
Toxics Link (India)
Taiwan Watch (Taiwan)
Green Formosa Front (Taiwan)
Green Citizens' Action Alliance (Taiwan)
Meinung People's Association (Taiwan)
Korean Network for Waste Free (South Korea)
Consumers' Association of Penang (Malaysia)
Society for Conservation and Protection of Environment (Pakistan)
Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (Nepal)
Campaign for Alternative Industry Network (Thailand)
Sustainable Energy Network for Thailand Community Right Institute(Thailand)
Phuket Environmental Group (Thailand)
Environmental Conservation Group of Klong Toe (Thailand)