Monday, September 17, 2018
Mr. Erik Solheim
United Nations Avenue, Gigiri
PO Box 30552, 00100
Nairobi, Kenya
cc: United Nations Environment Program
Dear Erik Solheim,
We were dismayed to see that the United Nations Environment has expressed its support for the controversial Reppie Waste-to-Energy Project. This misguided plan is setting the region on the wrong path: one that encourages waste instead of reducing it, and puts the surrounding community’s health at risk. We are also concerned with UN Environment’s inconclusive stance on incineration in Africa, as outlined in its latest Outlook Report.
According to the UN Environment’s own report, waste incineration is especially unfeasible for low and middle income countries like those in Africa, due to its cost-prohibitive nature and unsuitable waste composition [pp.22-pp.26]. As stated in the report: “WtE technologies are…typically both a more expensive way of managing waste and a more expensive way of producing energy.” However later in another report, one of the authors–who is connected with the Danish incinerator industry– writes favorably of incineration [pp.141-148].
The U.S. and EU are already moving away from incineration, with the understanding that incineration stands in the way of a zero waste, circular economy. Why should Africa be treated differently than its Northern counterparts? It seems that in response to “waste-to-energy”’s waning popularity in the West, the incinerator industry is attempting to make a profit by exporting Europe’s old waste management approach to Africa, undermining both regions’ zero waste goals.
The Reppie project might be lucrative for the multinational company behind it, Cambridge Industries Ltd, but it is a burden on the surrounding communities who will be exposed to the emissions that result from burning waste. In fact, the waste incineration industry has the highest negative economic impacts from air pollution compared to the financial value added by the industry. Trash incineration emits large quantities of pollution including nitrogen oxides (NOx), mercury, dioxins, and ultra-fine particles. Incinerators are also a major contributor to climate change.
Africa has the opportunity to build a just, equitable Zero Waste economy by enacting policy mechanisms to phase out the sale of wasteful products, create markets for reduction and reuse, and build more robust zero waste infrastructure. Instead, incinerator projects like Reppie lock cities into a cycle of burning that directly competes with zero waste efforts like recycling, composting, and other waste reduction strategies.
We ask the UN Environment to give a clear stance and policy statement supporting sustainable waste and resource management approaches at the top of the waste hierarchy, to refrain from endorsing waste incineration projects, particularly here in Africa, and to stop advocating waste incineration in all the agency’s publications and statements.
From,
ACPO – Associação de Combate aos Poluentes
African Uranium Alliance
Amigos de la Tierra Argentina
APRONAD
Association Toxicologie-Chimie (ATC)
Biofuelwatch
BIOS Argentina
CADIRE CAMEROON ASSOCIATION
Centar za zivotnu sredinu/ Friends of the Earth Bosnia and Herzegovina
Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)
Centre for Earth Works (CFEW)
Centre for Environment Justice and Development
Centre for Zero Waste & Development
CETAAR
Children’s Environmental Health Foundation
Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group
COAST
Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd
Consumers’ Association of Penang
Coordinadora de Pueblos y Organizaciones del Oriente del Estado de México en Defensa de la Tierra, el Agua y su Cultura
CREPD
Društvo Ekologi brez meja
Earthlife Africa Durban
Eco-Accord
EMPOWER INDIA
Environmental & Public Health Consulting
Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)
European Environmental Bureau
Fluoride Action Network
Food & Water Europe
Food & Water Watch
Friends of the Earth Australia
Friends of the Earth Australia
Friends of the Earth Canada
Friends of the Earth Europe
Friends of the Earth Ghana
Friends of the Earth International
Friends of the Earth Sierra Leone
Friends of the Earth U.S.
FUNAM, Environment Defence Foundation
Fundación Basura
Fundación el árbol
GAIA Africa
Goldman Environmental Prize
Green Knowledge Foundation, Nigeria
Greeners Action
groundWork
Health Care Foundation Nepal
IndyACT and InnoDev – Lebanon
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Irrigation Training and Economic Organization – IRTECO
JA!Justica Ambiental/FOEMozambique
Jovenes Ambientalistas
Les Amis de la Terre-Togo
NESMAC KITARA
NGO LA GRANDE PUISSANCE DE DIEU
Nipe Fagio
No Waste Louisiana
ONG AVPIP
ONG Valpo Interviene
Pan African Vision for the Environment
Plastic Change
Recicladores El Bosque.
RedBioLAC
REDES – Friends of the Earth Uruguay
Regional Centre for international development cooperation
Rose Academies
Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Friends of the Earth Malaysia)
Society for Earth
South Durban Community Environmental Alliance
Thanal
Toxisphera Environmental Health Association
United Kingdom Without Incineration Network (UKWIN)
University of the Witwatersrand School of Governance
Wellington Association Aggainst the Incinerator (“WAAI”)
Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)
Zero Waste Europe
Zero Waste OZ
Centro Universitário Fundação Santo André