Recycle Waste say protesters

by Fiona Firth

IT’S the everyday household waste that most people throwing the bin without a second thought, but environmentalists claim it’s the sort of rubbish that puts health at risk.

They demonstrated their point by dumping bagfuls of the stuff on Sheffield Town Hall steps.

The 50-strong protest follows Greenpeace’s recent demonstration at the Bernard Road incinerator, where waste is burned.

Green Party member Bernard Little said: “We are saying that incineration isn’t the way to deal with waste, that it is creating pollution and ill health in the city.

“We want to see a massive increase in recycling. We need to stop producing the waste in the first place.”

Graham Wroe, of community action group Impact, told the crowd outside the town Town Hall: “All this stuff is usually burned in the incinerator and we have to breathe this into our lungs. We want waste looked after sensibly.”

The protesters claim less than five per cent of waste is recycled in Sheffield. Some scientists believe dioxins produced by burning waste are responsible for cancer, damage to unborn children and hormonal disorders.

Impact is calling on the council to improve recycling facilities and introduce door to door collections.

The protest was organised by Sheffield Environmental Action supported by the Green Party, the Socialist Alliance, SCRAP, Sheffield Greenpeace Supporters and residents who live near the incinerator.

Demonstrators arranged for the rubbish dumped at the Town Hall to be taken for recycling after the protest.

Commentary

The first, and most important sentence alienates ‘most people’ from the ‘environmentalists’. This could easily be read as the protest being against ‘most people’. The protest was aimed at the council, not the public. This point is not clarified until the tenth paragraph and then only says ‘Impact is calling on the council’. In fact everyone there was calling on the council NOT the public.

The sentence, “Some scientists believe dioxins ... are responsible for cancer...” is particularly misleading. It suggests that this claim is at best unproven, and at worst possibly false. In fact dioxins are the most toxic substance known, 1000 times more toxic than arsenic, and are proven to cause cancer. Read The dioxin deception for more.

Sheffield Environmental Action did NOT organise the protest. The protest came from like minded groups and individuals at a meeting called for by Impact. The idea of taking rubbish to the town hall came from someone in Sheffield Environmental Action.