Greenpeace Protests Australian Incineration Policies

Date: February 20, 2003

Source: News Room

Nongovernmental organizations have testified at Australian Senate hearings into Australia's relationship with Papua New Guinea and the Pacific region that government policies are failing to appropriately deal with the biggest environmental challenges facing the region. Greenpeace officials have welcomed Australian government funding for a strategy to deal with persistent organic pollutants in the region. However, Greenpeace is critical of the proposal in a report by the government's aid agency AusAid, recommending that the wastes be incinerated. "At a time when Australia is actively seeking to reduce the number of medical incinerators and has banned the development of high temperature incineration for POPs waste, it seems incongruous to say the least, for an AusAid report to propose incineration for other Pacific island states," Greenpeace submitted. More information: www.greenpeace.org/homepage/.

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