GAIA launches Zero Waste Journalists Network to investigate environmental issues worldwide

20 Jan 2023 --- The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) is launching an investigative journalist network to cover environmental and climate change issues, named the Zero Waste Journalists Network (ZWJN). The project aims to produce evidence that waste reduction is the most viable form of environmental protection.

Sonia Astudillo, senior communications officer for GAIA, tells PackagingInsights that “ZWJN aims to be the pioneer in highlighting zero waste as a reliable and practical approach to the climate crisis.”

“The network will also offer a younger generation of journalists the chance to cover and continue the advocacy for environmental and social justice through this platform. This can be achieved through sharing and amplifying each other’s stories and the issues that impact the region.”

Ramadhan Wibisono, an Indonesian journalist among the first to join the network, says each member plans to create online discussions and exchange their knowledge regularly, with “efforts to improve the environment, especially in critically affected regions. This access enables a stream of news stories with relevant scientific and policy information to reach the audiences,” he says.

The network says environmental investigations lead into all aspects of social, political and economic life.Climate change issues ubiquitous
Astudillo asserts the ZWJN is needed as environmental problems now feed into all areas of social and political life. “We envision the network to provide the space for journalists to really look at socio-economic and political issues from a zero waste and climate perspective,” she says.

“We have reached that point when it is no longer possible to talk about an upcoming election without looking at a candidate’s approach and plans to address climate issues. We can no longer discuss business investments without scrutinizing their environmental impacts.”

“Agricultural plans without climate mitigation and adaptation plans are incomplete. Waste and climate issues touch on and impact almost everything in the world we live in now, and that is what the journalists have expressed to do: to connect all the pieces of the puzzle together,” Astudillo continues.

Promoting independent journalism
There has yet to be any funding backing the initiative, nor concrete targets, according to GAIA. This is partly to protect the reporters’ independence and objectivity, the organization asserts.

Wibisono says his personal target is simple. “I just want to raise up Indonesian people’s awareness in preserving the environment with zero waste.”

“They know the rules prohibiting the disposal of waste or burning waste in public places so I should motivate them to obey the rules and implement an environmentally friendly lifestyle. I want also to introduce that some Indonesian people can manage waste properly into valuable products that increase their family income and even regional income.”

GAIA against Asian Development Bank
Last year, GAIA called on the Asian Development Bank to stop its investments in incinerator projects, arguing that WTE practices threaten human and environmental health and offer major FMCGs an excuse to continue mass-producing single-use plastics, which can provide a source of free fuel for cement kilns and other construction industry practices.

In 2021, a Reuters investigation accused a group of major FMCGs of “dirty and misleading” waste incineration practices. Unilever, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, and Colgate-Palmolive all participate in collaborations with cement producers.

GAIA condemned the partnerships, while other environmental organizations – like Vietnam Zero Waste Alliance – said governments in the region are pressured into accepting incineration despite its negative consequences because they are “overwhelmed” by the amount of trash dumped in the country.

By Louis Gore-Langton

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