Recycling, waste reduction forgotten solutions to climate change

Published by rudy Date posted on December 14, 2009

WE CALL ATTENTION to an important but under-recognized issue in the climate change negotiations: The mitigation potential of recycling and waste reduction and the threat posed by false “waste-to-energy” solutions such as incinerators and landfill gas systems.

In the developing world, “waste-pickers” and “recyclers” already contribute substantially to emissions mitigation and are ready to do more, if given the recognition and support they need and deserve.

Recycling is one of the cheapest, quickest and easiest ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developed and developing nations alike. Reducing emissions through recycling is 30 percent cheaper than through energy efficiency and 90 percent cheaper than through wind power. The potential of recycling, composting, and other waste prevention techniques to reduce emissions is enormous. Each family that recycles and composts reduces emissions as much as if it stopped driving the family car.

Recycling has major economic benefits, employing at least 15 million people in developing countries. Even in developed countries, recycling provides 10 times the jobs per ton of waste as incinerators and landfills.

Waste-pickers working in the informal economy are at the heart of existing recycling systems in the developing world, and must play an integral role in any expansion of recycling. Evidence from developing countries shows that when municipalities try to bypass waste-pickers by granting contracts to private waste management companies, these programs often fail outright and lead to job loss, wasted public resources, lower recycling rates, and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Yet the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is supporting incinerators and landfills which compete with waste-pickers and recycling programs. These projects increase greenhouse gas emissions and unemployment—exactly the opposite of CDM’s intended effect. Waste-pickers need financial and technical support from a non-market based financial mechanism. Therefore, we ask the government to:

• recognize the critical and productive role that the informal recycling sector contributes to climate change mitigation and to a healthy economy.

• approve a Global Climate Fund that will invest in resource recovery programs that ensure decent livelihoods for all workers and traders in the recycling economy, and is directly accessible to waste-pickers and other informal sector groups.

• exclude waste disposal technologies (including incinerators, landfill gas and incinerator variants such as pyrolysis, gasification and plasma) from the CDM and other climate funds.

For more information, please see www.no-burn.org/wp. –Philippine Daily Inquirer

—REI PANALIGAN, EcoWaste Coalition; MANNY CALONZO, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives; OCHIE TOLENTINO, Cavite Green Coalition; ROY ALVAREZ, Earth Renewal Project; MERCI FERRER, Health Care Without Harm; NENENG JOSON, Krusada sa Kalikasan;BABY REYES, Mother Earth Foundation; ROMY HIDALGO, November 17 Movement; GEORGE DADIVAS, Salika; OFELIA PANGANIBAN, Zero Waste Philippines

July 2025

Nutrition Month
“Give us much more than P50 increase
for proper nutrition!”

Invoke Article 33 of the ILO Constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations
against serious violations of
Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.

Accept National Unity Government (NUG)
of Myanmar.  Reject Military!

#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideosturesVideos

Time to support & empower survivors. Time to spark a global conversation. Time for #GenerationEquality to #orangetheworld!

July


3 July – International Day of Cooperatives
3 Ju
ly – International Plastic Bag Free Day
 
5 July –
World Youth Skills Day 
7 July – Global Forgiveness Day
11 July – World Population Day 
17 July – World Day for
International Justice
28 July – World Nature Conservation Day
30 July – World Day against Trafficking in Persons 


Monthly Observances:

Schools Safety Month

Nutrition Month
National Disaster Consciousness Month

Weekly Observances:

Week 2: Cultural Communities Week
Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise
Development Week
Week 3: National Science and
Technology Week
National Disability Prevention and
Rehabilitation Week
July 1-7:
National Culture Consciousness Week
July 13-19:
Philippines Business Week
Week ending last Saturday of July:
Arbor Week

 

Daily Observances:

First Saturday of July:
International Cooperative Day
in the Philippines

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