Environment groups belonging to Break Free From Plastic Philippines (BFFP) lambast Asian Development Bank (ADB) for its push to incinerate medical wastes produced during the COVID-19 outbreak here in the Philippines. In its statement, ADB had said that “Manila should properly dispose of 16,800 tons of infectious medical wastes produced in the past two months of battling the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, or risk overwhelming its medical transport and disposal systems.” The ADB proposed that “other resources including mobile incinerators, industrial furnaces and cement kilns could be assessed for use if existing systems are overloaded and capacity is limited.”
Incinerating medical waste is no longer allowed as stated in the Department of Health (DOH) Manual on Health Care Waste Management. The manual says autoclave, microwave, sterilization and chemical disinfection are among the processes that can be used to treat medical wastes.
“It is unfortunate that ADB is taking advantage of the current crisis to revive its business agenda of incineration in the country which is legally prohibited.’ said Rei Panaligan, National Project Coordinator of BFFP Philippines.
The said bank has been financing waste-to-energy projects in Asia over the last ten years. Most of which are in China where the new coronavirus was first detected.
“This proposal from ADB is just a way to justify its financing of technology that is dirtier and deadlier than SARS CoV-2 virus because the health and environmental hazards that incinerators can bring are irreversible and irreparable,” Panaligan added.
The ADB is also behind the proposal for big ticket waste-to-energy incinerator projects in Quezon City, Cebu City and Davao City which all have failed due to financing and economic viability.
In 2018, the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) launched its report ADB and Waste Incineration: Bankrolling Pollution; Blocking Solutions. The report is a critical review of how ADB promotes investments in WTE incineration despite documented negative impacts of these facilities on public health, environment, economy, and the climate.
According to GAIA, WTE incinerator facilities advanced by ADB present significant investment risks, fail to comply with key provisions of the bank’s safeguard standards as well as core pillars of the bank’s poverty reduction strategy, and present a lack of accountability to the very people within member countries it is mandated to serve.
“If indeed the ADB is a development bank, it should be investing in mainstreaming sustainable livelihoods based on the zero waste approach that will reduce poverty and uplift the living conditions and quality of life of waste workers and their communities instead of serving corporate interests.” said Aileen Lucero, National Coordinator of Ecowaste Coalition. “There are proven success stories across Asia in addressing municipal solid waste and even healthcare and industrial wastes without incineration,” added Lucero.
The groups reminded the bank that waste incineration—a practice that is both unsustainable and polluting—is illegal under the Philippine Clean Air Act. They also called on the ADB Board of Governors to do their duty to ensure that funding for COVID recovery goes to solutions that conserve resources, protect health and which do not harm the climate, rather than to dirty and destructive projects.
BFFP Philippines is a collaboration of leading health and environmental networks such as the EcoWaste Coalition, GAIA Asia Pacific, Greenpeace, Health Care Without Harm Southeast Asia, Mother Earth Foundation and Oceana Philippines International.
