GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR INCINERATOR ALTERNATIVES (GAlA)

Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance

INCINERATOR BANS AND MORATORIA

ARGENTINA:

2006: The city council of General Pueyrredon, in Buenos Aires province, banned the construction of waste incinerators.

2005: Rosario city, province of Santa Fe, banned medical waste incineration. The ordinance also makes it illegal for the city to contract incinerator companies from other cities.

2005: Buenos Aires city approved a Zero Waste law that includes a ban on municipal solid waste incineration, including waste to energy.

2004: Villa Allende, a city in the province of Cordoba, banned the construction of waste incinerators and crematoria. In 2005 it also banned the entrance of hazardous waste to its territory.

2004: The municipality of Villa Nueva, in the province of Cordoba, banned the construction of incinerators and crematoria within the urban area, and zones of future urban growth.

2004: The city council of Crespo, in the province of Entre Rios, outlawed the construction of waste incinerators, including waste to energy plants, within 10 km from the urban area.

2004: The city of Totoras, in the province of Santa Fe, banned medical waste incineration. The ordinance also banned the entrance of this type of waste for treatment or disposal purposes.

2004: The city of Esquel, province of Chubut, banned waste incineration. The ban also applies to pyrolysis, gasification, plasma arc and waste to energy technologies.

2003: The city of Tres Arroyos, in Buenos Aires province, outawed the construction of waste incinerators.

2003: The city Council of Granadero Baigorria, Santa Fe province, outlawed medical waste incineration.

2002: The Buenos Aires City Council passed a law that bans incineration of medical waste. This includes medical waste generated in the city and sent outside for treatment.

2002: The City Council of Villa Constitucion, Santa Fe province, banned the construction of incinerators.

2002: The City Council of Coronel Bogado, Santa Fe province, banned the construction of incinerators.

2002: The City Council of Marcos Juarez, Cordoba province, outlawed the construction of incinerators.

2002: The Municipal Council of Casilda, Santa Fe province, banned hazardous waste incineration for 180 days. The resolution was extended for another 180 days in November 2002.

2002: The municipality of Palpala, in Jujuy province, banned the construction of waste incinerators for medical and industrial wastes

2002: The City Council of Capitan Bermudez outlawed all type of waste incineration.

2001: The province of San Juan banned crematoria in urban and semi-urban areas.

BRAZIL:

Municipality of Diadema , State of Sao Paulo: 1995 - Approves a law banning incinerators for municipal waste. The city council states that the waste problem should be tackled using reduce, reuse, and recycling policies.

CANADA:

Ontario: 2001 - Province of Ontario enacts a hazardous waste plan that includes the phase-out of all hospital medical waste incinerators.

CHILE:

Banned incineration in several metropolitan areas of the country in 1976. Resolucion 07077 issued 28 Sept 1976 in Santiago Chile.

CZECH REPUBLIC:

The town of Cepi (district Pardubice) bans construction of new waste incinerators.

GERMANY:

North Rhine/Westfalia: 1995 - The largest, most populated and most industrialized state in Germany bans municipal solid waste incinerators.

GREECE:

Approves legislation in 1994 declaring it illegal to bum hazardous waste in waste-to-energy plants. In 2001, the Minister for the Environment formally declared a policy of prohibiting municipal waste incineration.

INDIA :

Incineration of chlorinated plastics is banned nationally. The city of Hyderabad in the state of Andhra Pradesh bans on-site hospital waste incineration.

IRELAND:

Although no formal ban is in place, Ireland closed all of its medical waste incinerators in 1999.

JAPAN :

In 1998, the Ministry of Health and Welfare revised the laws to allow disposal of PCBs using chemical methods. While there is no formal ban on incineration of PCBs, there is an informal proscription of incineration.

MALTA:

All public and private hospitals are to eliminate clinical waste incineration by 2001.

PHILIPPINES:

In 1999, the Clean Air Act was passed which bans all types of waste incineration. The law extends to municipal, medical and hazardous industrial wastes. The Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 further strengthens this ban with the promotion of proper segregation, collection, transport, storage, treatment and disposal of solid waste through the implementation of best environmental practices in ecological waste management, excluding incineration.

SLOVAKIA:

Banned waste importation for incineration in 2001.

SPAIN:

Regional Government of Aragon bans hospital waste incineration.

UNITED STATES: STATES

Delaware: 2000 - State prohibits new solid waste incinerators within three miles of a residential property, church, school, park, or hospital.

Iowa : 1993 - State enacts a moratorium on commercial medical waste incinerators. Moratorium still in place. Moratorium does not extend to incinerators operated by a hospital or consortium of hospitals.

Louisiana: 2000 - State revised its statute Title 33 which prohibits municipalities of more than 500,000 of owning, operating or contracting garbage incinerators in areas zoned for residential or commercial use.

Maryland : 1997 - State prohibits construction of municipal waste incinerators within one mile of an elementary or secondary school.

Massachusetts : 1991 - State enacts a moratorium on new construction or expansion of solid waste incinerators. Moratorium still in place.

Rhode Island : 1992 - State bans the construction of new municipal solid waste incinerators. First state to enact such a ban.

West Virginia: 1994 - State bans the construction of new municipal and commercial waste incinerators. Permits pilot tire incineration projects.

COUNTIES

Alameda County, California: 1990 - Voter initiative passes "Waste Reduction and Recycling Act" which bans waste incinerators in the county. A later court ruling limits the ban to the unincorporated areas ofthe county, however, there are no Operating municipal waste incinerators in Alameda county.

Anne Arundel County, Maryland: 2001 - County bans solid waste and medical Waste incinerators.

CITIES

Athens, Maine: Passed in March 2007 an ordinance that bans the incineration of construction and demolition debris, and a number of other Maine towns are looking at adopting a similar ordinance.

Brisbane, California: 1988 - City bans new construction of waste incinerators.

Chicago, Illinois: 2000 - City bans municipal waste incineration. The ban extends to burning waste in schools and apartment buildings.

San Diego, California: A city ordinance stipulates that waste incinerators cannot be sited within a certain radius of schools and daycare centers, which results in no eligible land being available for incinerators.

Ellenburg, New York: 1990 - Town bans waste incinerators.

New York City: 1989 - Banned all apartment house incinerators by 1993. By 1993, all 2,200 apartment house incinerators that were in operation in 1989 were shut down.

MORATORIA:

Several US states, including Arkansas, Wisconsin and Mississippi, have enacted moratoria on medical or municipal waste incinerators that have since expired or been lifted. The US EP A enacted a nationwide, 18-month freeze on new construction of hazardous waste incinerators in 1993. Two unsuccessful bills were introduced in the US Congress during the 1990s to enact a moratorium on new waste incinerators. Other examples of incinerator moratoria include:

1982: Berkeley, California passes a ballot initiative banning garbage burning plants for five years. The moratorium allowed the city to develop recycling programs which became national models.

1985:Sweden implements a 2-year moratorium on new incinerators.

1990: In the Flemish speaking part of Belgium, public pressure results in as-year moratorium on new municipal waste incinerators.

1992: Ontario, Canada bans new municipal incinerators. In 1996 a new conservative government overturns ban.

1992: Baltimore, Maryland passes 5-year moratorium on new municipal incinerators.

INTERNATIONAL

In 1996 the Protocol to the London Convention banned incineration at sea globally.

In 1992 the OSP AR Convention banned incineration at sea in the north-east Atlantic.