Africa Anti-Incineration Series | Resistance in Drakenstein, South Africa

In 2012, the Drakenstein municipality signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Interwaste, a waste management company, to construct a municipal waste incinerator to address the municipalities waste issues.

The resistance to this municipal incinerator involved several key actors, this included the Drakenstein Environmental Watch (DEW), Wellington Association Against the Incinerator (WAAI), groundWork (gW), South African Waste Pickers Association (SAWPA), GAIA, community residents, vulnerable groups that
would have been affected by the project, water experts, engineers and legal clinics were just some of the agents that supported the resistance of the municipal waste incinerator.

This paper, meant for city and municipal officials, gives a brief introduction to incineration. It aims to inform readers about the technical basics

of incineration plants and their pitfalls and equip them with questions to ask when they are faced with incinerator proposals. Aside from being a guide for officials faced with incinerator proposals, this paper hopes to help decision-makers aim for long-term directions toward sustainability and advocate for better and safer resource and waste management systems in their localities.

The cement industry is a major contributor to climate change. The production of cement, the second most consumed product in the world after water, is one of the most energy-intensive industrial processes. This report presents the false solutions of the cement industry in the fight against climate change with a special focus on Spain, where civil society is taking the lead in the reporting of cement plants’ wrongdoing. The Coordinadora Anti-incineración de Residuos en Cementeras, a network of local groups that are fighting waste incineration in cement kilns,
has collected first-hand information of the many affected communities are paying the cement traps with their health and future of their economies.

This report uses independent empirical research to evidence that incinerator bottom ash is insidiously hazardous and under-regulated. Risk is heightened by the fact that testing methods for its use as a building material are outdated. A list of fifteen concerns for public health and safety is provided in relation to the use of waste incinerator bottom ash in cement-based products and as road/pathway aggregate. Calls for the support of its use within a circular economy are premature, and, as per the precautionary principle, all ongoing usage should cease. Examination of independently analysed bottom ash provides a diagnostic on the operational steady state of waste incinerators, incidentally raising concerns about operational compliance with emissions legislation and the capacity of incinerators to produce benign bottom ash when fed with municipal solid waste.

Burning waste emits climate pollution and other toxic chemicals, and is the least energy efficient and most costly method of energy production. A plastics treaty must adopt a moratorium on new incinerators and encourage a roadmap to phase out all existing incinerators by 2030.

GAIA US Canada’s Community Tools for Anti-Incineration Organizing resource designed to support community organizers and advocates in both new and existing incineration campaigns. The toolkit is informed by the experiences of GAIA members around the world who have mobilized their own communities and allies to fight for a world without waste-burning. 

In 2019, GAIA Asia Pacific members gathered in Penang, Malaysia for a series of activities, which culminated in a regional meeting where we set our objectives for the next three years (2020-2023).

Just months after the regional meeting, the world confronted the uncertainty and threats of the COVID-19 pandemic, making work on the ground doubly difficult, as the pandemic also exacerbated the already widespread and systemic injustices that we have long been fighting. 

In the face of these challenges, GAIA members remained steadfast in their commitment for a better world. This publication, “POSSIBLE TOGETHER,” is a proof of that.

As written by GAIA International Coordinator, Christie Keith, in her message, “The organizing stories in the publication are a testament to how hard GAIA members have worked since early 2020 – despite great personal risk – to create visionary Zero Waste solutions and oppose toxic pollution. These are stories of cultural survival, fierce resistance, and local transformation.”

It takes a network to have a fighting chance when faced with challenges of this magnitude, and collectively, GAIA members rose to the occasion. They extended each other a helping hand and made sure that their communities would not be left behind. 

The work may be daunting; and the times, challenging. But difficult can become easy; and the impossible, possible when when people work together.

This report presents a comprehensive analysis and arguments on the need to improve the Landfill Directive and the Waste Framework Directive, highlighting residual waste reduction as a crucial tool to ensure alignment with the overarching principles of the EU Circular Economy Agenda.

As the world’s fastest-urbanizing continent, Africa has encountered major challenges in implementing a sound solid waste management system. The media and some international institutions including the UN Environment Program have repeteadly promoted waste incineration in Africa, without ackowledging incineration’s harmful impact on human health and the environment.

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