The reality of waste-derived fuels: up in the air
Turning waste into fuels has not been successful for over three decades. Would it work any better for jet fuels? Most likely not. Dr. Andrew Rollinson disputes industry claims after looking into the latest research and the trends on waste-derived jet fuels. Among the...
read more
Seven Key Solutions to Landfill Methane
A new United Nations report shows that we must tackle methane emissions to keep planetary warming under control. Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and much of it comes from organic waste in landfills. The good news is that we can...
read more
Waste Incinerators Undermine Clean Energy Goals
Renewable energy is defined as energy produced by natural resources — such as sunlight, wind, and geothermal heat — that are naturally replenished within a certain time span. Municipal solid waste is derived from finite natural resources and burning these...
read more
Policy Briefing: Transposing the Basel Convention plastic waste amendments
See this policy briefing to learn how countries can avoid loopholes in plastic trade regulatory frameworks and ensure that new rules under the Basel Convention plastic waste amendments have real impact.
read more
Fact Sheet: False solutions to the Plastic Pollution Crisis
Fact Sheet: False solutions to the Plastic Pollution Crisis As the global plastic pollution crisis continues to grow, so does industry hype around techno-fixes, including waste-to-energy incineration and chemical processing of plastic waste. Such...
read more
Infográfico: Estrategias basura cero para la neutralidad de carbono
Este infográfico guía a las ciudades a través de tres estrategias de basura cero para avanzar hacia objetivos climáticos globales: reducir emisiones desde la fuente, acabar con la incineración y las emisiones de metano desde los vertederos, y aumentar el...
read more
Infographic: Zero Waste Strategies Towards Carbon Neutrality
Materials management holds great potential in climate mitigation. This infographic guides cities through three zero waste strategies to move toward global climate goals: reducing emissions at the source, stopping incinerators and methane emissions from landfills and...
read more
Fact Sheet: Pollution and Health Impacts of Waste-to-Energy Incineration
Epidemiological studies provide sufficient evidence of direct health impacts of incinerators, which range from neoplasia to congenital anomalies, infant deaths and miscarriage. While more research can be done on newer incinerators when enough data is...
read more
Fact Sheet: Plastic and Incineration
We have too much plastic that has nowhere to go... Can we just burn it? Short answer: no! Burning is the most harmful way to handle plastic waste. It turns one form of pollution into others, including air emissions, toxic ash, and...
read more
Waste-to-Energy has no place in Africa
For centuries, self-sufficient agricultural societies had been zero waste by nature. This sustainable cycle broke when artificial materials, such as plastic packaging, began conquering the market. As the world's fastest-urbanizing continent, Africa has...
read more
Incinerators in trouble
's As part of a series of projects planned to support and elevate grassroots efforts against trash incinerators in the U.S., GAIA released a factsheet on failing incinerators, featuring five key locations. Commerce Refuse-to-Waste Facility (CREF) in Commerce,...
read more
Garbage Incineration: What a Waste
Burning waste comes with a number of economic, environmental, and social justice issues. Read about them all in this two page factsheet.
read more
Facts about “Waste-to-Energy” Incinerators
Incinerators are facilities that treat waste by burning it. They come under many names such as “mass burn incinerators,” “thermal treatment facilities,” or so-called “waste-to-energy” (WTE) plants, and involve processes such as combustion, pyrolysis, gasification, or...
read moreIncinerators and “waste to energy”: Myths vs. Facts
Learn the true story behind the lies that the so-called “waste to energy” industry tells.
read more
GAIA pub shows how waste incinerators undermine recycling
Waste incineration undermines recycling. This conflict is particularly clear in so-called “waste-to-energy” incinerators, and is also true for burners that do not recover energy. The cases presented in this briefing paper clearly illustrate the many ways that incineration has worked against waste prevention and recycling in various locations around the globe.
read moreFacts Rule Out Trash Gasification
Since WW II attempts to gasify municipal solid waste (MSW) have failed repeatedly. Processing trash with high heat is (1) polluting; (2) expensive; (3) energy inefficient; (4) destroys resources that could be reused, recycled, or composted; and (5) generates slag and other “by-products” that have to be landfilled.
read moreThe Green Climate Fund and community control
The Green Climate Fund is a new, global institution which is supposed to channel billions of dollars to support climate adaptation and mitigation in developing countries. But it is critically important that communities retain control of which projects get funded.
read moreCDM Case Studies: The Clean Development Mechanism in Solid Waste Management
Case studies of the CDM’s landfill and incinerator projects, which increase greenhouse gas emissions and toxic pollution while displacing waste pickers’ livelihoods.
read moreRespect for Recyclers: Protecting the Climate through Zero Waste
Reducing, reusing, and recycling municipal waste is one of the easiest and most effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It also provides gainful employment to millions of people in the developing world, mostly in the informal sector (“wastepickers”). Yet rather than supporting these 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.
read moreFactsheet on wastepickers and climate change
Wastepickers reduce greenhouse gas emissions through increased recycling; yet they are increasingly in conflict with “waste-to-energy” projects.
read more