The world is experiencing a “triple planetary crisis” of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution precisely because of the appetite for “non-stop growth” by fossil-fueled economies that prioritizes profit above all things, says Filipino environmental activist Brex Arevalo. Photo: T.Sison/CJI
Ecological justice means putting marginalized and affected communities at the centre of environmental decisions, said Brex Arevalo, a Filipino environmental activist, researcher and planner, during an event co-organized last Friday night by Canadian Jesuits International (CJI) and Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Toronto.
Arevalo used the example of Smokey Mountain, a massive dumpsite that operated for 50 years in Manila, to illustrate his point. He noted how waste workers and urban poor residents had transformed the former mountain of garbage into a thriving community with farms and 400 trees after it was shut down in 1995. However, it is now under threat from the city government’s plan to build an incinerator. He said that the proposed $US500 million incinerator threatens the homes, livelihoods and hopes of around 23,000 people. People are resisting the plan, he said, sharing the story of two young residents, Jenny and Anora, who are leading the protests and demanding dialogue with the city mayor. He added that the mayor has been ignoring their calls for consultation. Those who have opposed the project are being subjected to involuntary displacements, harassment, property damage, loss of basic services, and are being asked to relocate in exchange for $200 per family, he said.
Brex Arevalo shows an image of Smokey Mountain in Manila. Photo: T. Sison/CJI
What is happening in Smokey Mountain is “not a unique situation, “said Arevalo, who is conducting a seven-city tour in Canada as part of CJI’s 2026 fall campaign, Ecological Justice: It’s not complicated. He noted how “Waste-to-Energy incineration” projects are sprouting in poor communities in the Global South, where they are being falsely marketed as a solution to waste and climate change. Despite knowing that recycling plastic “is neither technically nor economically viable,” petrochemical and plastics industries have been misleading the public about recycling, said Arevalo, citing that only 9% of plastic waste is recycled. What people also don’t realize is that plastics are “99% fossil-fuel derived,” said Arevalo, who works with urban poor communities in Manila as Climate and Anti-Incineration Campaigner for the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA). He previously spent years at Ecojesuit — the global communications platform and online resource centre for the Global Ignatian Advocacy Network — where he said his work Arevalo said that waste-to-energy incineration, plastic-to-fuel technologies, chemical recycling, refuse-derived fuel, bioplastics, landfill carbon capture, carbon credit schemes and biomass incineration are “false solutions” to the ecological crisis because they fail to address plastic pollution, they harm human and ecosystem health, and delay production reduction, among others. Waste-to-energy incineration emits about 70% more carbon dioxide than coal plants per unit of energy and produces toxic ash and other hazardous chemicals.
These “false solutions” also create the false belief that the Earth’s energy and resources are infinite and that nature can keep on absorbing exploitation, he said. The world is experiencing a “triple planetary crisis” of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution precisely because of the appetite for “non-stop growth” by fossil-fueled economies that prioritizes profit above all things, said Arevalo. “Production is through the roof, consumption is through the roof, and no amount of recycling can save us.”
Grounding his presentation on Laudato si’s call to hear “both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor,” Arevalo argued that ecological crisis and social injustice are inseparable. Waste-driven, profit-centred and “linear” economic systems harm the Earth and the poor, and “false waste-to-energy” solutions only serve to deepen those harms.
He called for zero-waste, community-led alternatives grounded in participation, transparency, listening, accountability and dignity. He cited the example of the Indigenous Pulangiyen communities in Bendum, Philippines, and zero-waste initiatives in several Asian countries that have replaced incinerators with reduction, composting, reuse, and safe recovery systems that involve waste workers. Millions of waste workers or recuperateurs already perform much of the world’s recycling with little institutional support, said Arevalo. He noted that Indonesia has about 3.7 million waste workers, and India, more than 3 million. “They play a huge role. And without them, I would say that cities like mine, like in Manila, in places like Dhaka, in places like Surabaya in Indonesia, those cities would be much dirtier than they are today.”
Arevalo urged Canadians to press their government to consider marginalized communities and stop supporting harmful projects, nothing how Canada is a major shareholder at the Asian Development Bank, which has been financing incineration.
He also reiterated the call of the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability, of which CJI is a member, for a mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence law. This law would hold Canadian companies accountable for their overseas operations, some of which are linked to the displacement of Indigenous communities, environmental degradation, gender-based violence, and other human rights violations.
Arevalo urged the audience to sustain “stubborn hope,” particularly among young people who feel overwhelmed by the ecological crisis. “Without hope, there is no ecological justice,” he said. Ecological justice is “not complicated. It is simple. It’s community.”
CJI Executive Director Jenny Cafiso said Arevalo’s talk “reminds us that the solutions to the climate crisis and to many of the ills that plague the world will come from people who are excluded and who live on the margins of society.” It is in the margins that “more equitable and just ways of living, in tune with our natural world and in harmony with each other, are being practiced. As we state in our fall campaign, it’s not complicated. We only need our political will.”
Event attendees asked Arevalo several questions, including what the UN has been doing to promote zero-waste solutions and how people can get started on zero-waste practices at home. Arevalo says has called for urgent action against waste pollution, and has warned that waste generation is expected to balloon from the current and already massive 2.1 billion tonnes to 3.8 billion tonnes annually by 2050. He also shared the following zero-waste resources:
10-step manual to zero waste
Zero waste case studies
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13Wp3dMPx3NSV-WfL3UOh28c2c20WMKgP
