Pro-environment groups on Thursday asked the Philippine Supreme Court to declare null and void a government order allowing the use of “waste-to-energy” facilities in the country.

The groups filed a petition against the implementation of the Environment department’s “Guidelines Governing Waste To Energy Facilities for the Integrated Management of Municipal Solid Waste.”

The petitioners argued that the order “will result in grave violations of the people’s Right to Health and the Right to a Balanced and Healthful Ecology.”

“We hope that the Supreme Court will give due course to the petition and grant the reliefs prayed for,” lawyer Kristine Joy Argallon told OeconoMedia.

She said a favorable ruling by the Supreme Court “will go a long way in the fight to protect the environment and in resisting false solutions to waste management.”

Rei Panaligan of the group Plastic-Free Pilipinas Project said “waste-to-energy” facilities “merely transform the waste into other harmful substances, such as dioxins and furans.”

“Dioxins and furans are highly toxic substances that cause cancer, diabetes, and chloracne. [These] facilities emit high volumes of greenhouse gasses that accelerate climate change,” he added.Subscribe to Spotlight (Philippines) for the latest news in the Philippines direct to your mailbox 

Coleen Salamat, an environmental advocate and one of the petitioners, said “waste-to-energy” facilities are “false solutions and a tricky term to greenwash.”

“This justifies the production of plastics when we should be reducing and eliminating it at the source,” Salamat said.

“In the middle of a global pandemic, this will just add to the persistent health and climate crisis we are facing,” she added. – OeconoMedia for LiCAS.news