A total of 182 activist groups from 45 countries have launched a worldwide protest to highlight the impact of waste pollution on human health which they say is mainly affecting children.

The Third Global Day of Action against Waste on Sept 1 was an annual day of protest against unsustainable and dangerous waste disposal systems, said the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) in a joint statement from Berkeley, Manila and Penang.

The observation of the date is to amplify citizen voices that call out for non-incineration workable solutions to the growing volume and toxicity of today's 'take, make and throw' society.

GAIA co-ordinator Von Hernandez said this year's protest highlighted recent evidence from the World Health Organisation indicating that more than three million children aged below five were dying each year due to exposure to polluted air and water and other environmental hazards.

"To be really blunt about it, the worsening levels of pollution worldwide are killing children," he said.

"Governments are obviously failing to protect children and the human population at large from harmful chemical assaults resulting from unsustainable and irresponsible practices such as incineration."

He noted that on their own, incinerators were responsible for 69 percent of global dioxin emissions and this posed a serious environmental health threat.

"(Dioxin) is linked to cancer, immune and reproductive system disorders, birth defects and other health threats," he said.

"Incineration is also the primary source of mercury, a potent neurotoxin which builds up in the environment, especially aquatic ecosystems, and affects the brain, spinal cord, kidneys and liver. It is especially harmful to pregnant women and children."

Harmful pollutants

Besides endangering public health, said Von Hernandez, state-of-the-art incinerators also destroy huge quantities of valuable resources, pile up national debts, weaken recycling efforts, hinder job creation and community development, and retain profit in the hands of big businesses.

He said on top of this incinerators, and also landfills, perpetuated wasteful and unsustainable production and consumption systems.

"Available evidence worldwide from various academic, governmental and international bodies indicate that many of the chemical emissions from dump sites, landfills and incinerators are now found in the human body," he said.

"The fact that everyone is now contaminated with these harmful pollutants proves that we are now dangerously skirting the edge of the ecological precipice. How much harm are we willing to accept before we abandon these deadly ways of managing society's discards?" asked Von Hernandez

Manila-based GAIA is an international coalition of community-based organisations, research and policy advocacy institutions and citizens pressure groups together with other non-profit organisations and individuals.

The coalition, with 470 members in 75 countries, promotes clean production, zero waste and sustainable discard management systems in a commitment to end waste incineration and advance workable solutions to the waste management crisis.

Coalition member the Consumers Association of Penang was particularly concerned over the proposal for a 1,500-tonne incinerator plant - the biggest of its kind in the world - and a sanitary landfill for municipal solid waste in Broga - a forest reserve and a water catchment area that supplies drinking water to millions in the Klang Valley.

"We are appalled that a monstrous waste burner will be constructed in an environmentally-sensitive area despite objections and protests from concerned citizens," said its president SM Mohd Idris.

Zero waste approach

Insisting that incineration and landfills were not 'real solutions' to Malaysia's solid waste problems, Idris said that the government should adopt more environmentally-sound techniques of waste minimisation.

"(These include) resource conservation, segregation at source, resource recovery, clean production, reuse, home composting and a safe recycling," he said, urging Malaysia to emulate other countries in adopting zero waste approaches.

Idris, who is also president of Sahabat Alam Malaysia, urged the government to pave the way for a cleaner, more environmentally and socially acceptable approach to waste minimisation and management.

Since the government earmarked Broga for the incinerator's site in late 2002, protest actions and peaceful demonstrations have been unsuccessfully held by the Semenyih/Broga No Incinerator pro-tem action committee.

Local residents have also exhausted all official avenues in their quest for a dialogue with the project's proponent, the Housing and Local Government Ministry but without any success.

They have since resorted to legal action.