Non-governmental organisations from Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines have spurned a trade delegation from the United Kingdom which visited Southeast Asia this week to promote incineration.

According to the Consumer Association of Penang (CAP) today, the delegation aimed to 'market' waste management capabilities, which include waste-to-energy technologies.

The trade mission was organised by the United Kingdom Trade and Investment's environmental industries sector unit.

In a statement, CAP said a joint letter signed by the NGOs from the three countries have been sent to the UK ambassadors in the respective countries.

The letter called for the exclusion of centralised, capital intensive and waste management technologies such as incinerators and landfills.

"The solution to the waste problem must be a holistic, environmentally sustainable, socially just and community-driven approach that will reduce both the volume and toxicity of materials used and discarded, and scale up waste prevention, segregation at source, recycling and composting programmes," said CAP president SM Mohamed Idris.

Serious threats

Apart from CAP and Shabat Alam Malaysia, the other NGOs which endorsed the letter, include the Philippines-based Ecological Waste Coalition, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Greenpeace Southeast Asia-Philippines, Health Care Without Harm.

The organisations from Thailand were Campaign for Alternative Industry Network and Greenpeace Southeast Asia-Thailand.

The letter also urged the UK government to promote and support recourse-conserving community enterprises and programmes that will maximise recycling of resources, generate jobs, develop local economies and prevent harm to the environment and people's health.

NGOs said incinerators pose serious threats to the environment and community health such as the release of dioxin, which have been linked to cancers, immune system dysfunction, birth defects, reproductive and developmental disorders.

In Malaysia, a group of residents around Broga, a remote farming hamlet that straddles Selangor and Negeri Sembilan have opposed the proposed construction of a mammoth incinerator since four years ago.