Open burning of plastics aggravates climate change and impacts human health. Open burning is a daily practice in households across the globe, particularly in regions without waste collection systems and due to lack of recyclability properties of plastics packagings. Join International Waste Platform’s global movement to raise awareness, educate and advocate for environmental regulations to prohibit open burning as a waste management practice.
🔥 open waste burning & climate change
Research suggest that Black carbon emissions from open burning of waste has a climate impact equivalent to 2–10% of global CO2Eq emissions.
Intentional burning of household waste is part of routine household chores. Intentional trash burning is often the only household or community level waste management method available in poorly regulated or developing countries. Intentional burning happens in landfills to create space. Spontaneous burning in landfills occurs due to ignition by methane from decomposing organic waste.
Burning can be an intentional practice at landfills or illegal dump sites, to create space; Waste burning also happens intentionally along the informal recycling chain, for instance to get rid of the mixed low-value or non-recyclable materials or during the informal recycling of e-waste;
Spontaneous burning also happens in landfills ignited by methane gas;
Open-burning of rice straw residues pollutes the air and contributes to global warming through emissions of Greenhouse gases;
🔥 open waste burning & health
Harmful pollutants from open-air burning include: fine particulates; black carbon (soot) particles; polychlorinated dibenzo dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzo furans (PCDFs); and polyaromatic hydrocarbons, including known carcinogens such as benzo(a)pyrene.
Young children and older adults, especially those with existing respiratory conditions (e.g., asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease etc.) are most susceptible to the immediate negative health effects from open-air burning. Exposure to poly-aromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins and furans are linked to problems with cancer, the liver, the immune system, endocrine system, the reproductive system, and the developing systems of the young.
🔥 posters
Available in Burmese, English, Filipino, French, Greek, Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Malagasy, Malay, Portuguese, Spanish (Castillano), Swahili, Tetum and Turkish. We invite you, your organisation, business or government to join our campaign by sharing this poster. You can download it free of charge in your country’s language for use in your networks and your community campaign. If your country’s national language is not yet included we can translate a poster for you.
International Waste Platform 