National Anti-Incinerator Campaign to Kick Off

Reading: Guardian, Independent and BBC News Websites, The Morning Star, some pages of Finnegans Wake, Green World.
Listening: Mozart.
Viewing:BBC News.
The good news is that the wave of projected incinerators and the new labour government's enthusiasm for waste incineration as the main plank of their waste strategy signalled by their recent statements is provoking a wave of locally based campaigns of resistance. The even better news is that these campaigns are linking up and there is a national meeting of incinerator campaigns to be convened by SAIN (Slough Against Incineration) in London in May.
Incineration is another industry dominated by corporate power, prepared to spend vast amounts of their (and often our!) money to ensure their future profits. One only has to look as far as Sheffield to see the effect that the adoption of an incineration based waste strategy has - to sabotage and de-incentivize recycling. With the pressure on landfill in terms of site exhaustion, regulation and cost the corporations have scented profit and the government and many councils are swallowing whole their lies about "safe", "green" incineration. If we allow them to, this unholy alliance of big business and politicians looking for a quick fix to their "waste problem" will pepper the country with new incinerators spewing dioxins, creating toxic ash and blighting communities.
The campaigns have an chance to build on the good work of groups like Friends of The Earth and promote a positive approach that sees waste as an opportunity, not a problem and aims for a "Zero Waste" strategy like that being investigated by a growing number of progressive local authorities. It is no surprise that many of the incinerators are planned for working class communities - another clear example of environmental injustice linked to social injustice. Greenman wishes the anti-incinerator campaigners the best of luck in launching their national campaign and urges all greens and ecosocialists to support them.