[getsmart-l] ONTARIO: New report cautions against garbage incineration

[Media Release]

Emacs!


Media Release - For Immediate Release

New report cautions against garbage incineration in Ontario

(Toronto, March 26, 2007)  With renewed calls for garbage 
incineration in communities such as Hamilton, Durham Region 
(Clarington) and Ottawa, Ontario needs a comprehensive waste 
management strategy, according to a new report released today by the 
Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy (CIELAP).

Titled Ontario's Waste Management Challenge - Is Incineration an 
Option? the report emphasizes waste reduction and diversion, while 
calling on the provincial government to fund an independent 
assessment of incineration technologies to better understand the true 
costs and benefits of incineration before their implementation.

"We're at an important crossroad in the energy-from-waste debate in 
Ontario," says Anne Mitchell, Executive Director of CIELAP.  "This 
research makes an important contribution by exploring where 
incineration might fit into an environmentally sustainable waste 
management strategy."

In the report (available at www.cielap.org), CIELAP makes the 
following key recommendations to the Ontario government:
    * Develop and implement strict packaging regulations to prevent 
and reduce unnecessary packaging;
    * Introduce strong policies and regulations on extended producer 
responsibility requiring industry to manage its waste itself, and 
strengthen the powers of Waste Diversion Ontario through amendments 
to the Waste Diversion Act to increase the role of industry 
stewardship in reducing and recycling waste; and
    * Fund an independent, fair and impartial scientific assessment 
of the risks and benefits of incineration technologies and provide 
this information to the public.
Maureen Carter-Whitney, CIELAP's Research Director and author of the 
report, states that, "Without an adequate diversion policy, we are 
merely turning to a quick fix.  Communities have a range of options 
to reduce and divert waste which ought to be explored and improved 
before investing in a technology that is controversial and may not 
even be necessary."

-30-

Copies of the report and a Quick Facts sheet are available at www.cielap.org.

For more information or to arrange interviews, contact Carolyn Webb 
at 416-923-3529 ext 26., or Anne Mitchell, cell: 416-577-8402.

Founded in 1970, the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and 
Policy (CIELAP) is an independent environmental law and policy 
research and education organization.
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