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Press Release / BAN and CNIID

The French dump proposal is the latest in a growing history of community rejection of the controversial toxic waste. The waste, produced by the Taiwanese company Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) , the world’s largest producer of PVC plastic, was earlier dumped in Cambodia by the company late last year following a rejection from local landfills by Taiwanese activists. Its later export and dumping in a field outside of Sihanoukville, Cambodia caused an international scandal and was implicated in the deaths of two men exposed to the waste and further caused a panic and riot resulting in five more deaths.

FPG then tried to get permission to dump the wastes in California, USA where it was rejected by the regional offices of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the local community where the waste was destined. Next, the company tried to export the waste to the state of Idaho, in the Northwest region of the United States. When that deal was about to go through, local trade union dockworkers in the port of Tacoma, Washington stepped in and announced that they had problems with the waste, and asked their counterparts in Taiwan not to load the material. The Idaho company later backed away from the import plan. Subsequent attempts by FPG to dump the waste in Nevada and Texas in the United States also fell through.

“It is only right that communities all over the world, and now in France, should reject this waste. We are not talking here about some little company, but one of the world’s largest transnational corporations, with vast resources,” said Gaëlle Ecobichon of CNIID. “France must refuse cooperation with a company which searches the globe for cheap disposal sites rather than treating the waste in a responsible manner on their corporate site in Taiwan.”

The environmental groups cite the obligations of the United Nations treaty known as the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, which France has joined. The treaty calls for an end to free-trade in toxic waste. As Taiwan is not a Party to the Basel Convention, without a special bilateral agreement between Taiwan and France, the export will be illegal. Furthermore, the Basel Convention requires countries party to it, to ensure that adequate disposal facilities are provided domestically in order to minimize the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes.

“The proposed shipment of Taiwanese wastes to France is irresponsible and probably illegal.” said Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network (BAN) secretariat. “The French Government must take action now to stop it.”

According to BAN, the precedent of French import of Asian waste should also be very alarming to French citizens. “Taiwan is but one Asian country that has industrialized in a very dirty way and now has mountains of toxic waste looking for a home,” he said. “If France is willing, local waste disposal communities which thought they might only be subject to French wastes may very well be facing many more huge shipments of toxic wastes each year. The potential volume is unlimited,” he said.”

“France must not become the pay-toilet for the entire world,” said Gaëlle Ecobichon. “This would be very bad for France and likewise would be doing no favours for Asian and other developing countries which need to become self-sufficient in waste management. Rather than importing toxic waste, France should be exporting appropriate waste management technologies that reduce and stabilize wastes at source,” she said.

For More Information Contact:

Gaëlle Ecobichon
Centre national d’information indépendante sur les déchets
51 rue du Fbg St-Antoine
75011 Paris, France
Phone: 33-1-55782860
Fax: 33-1-55782861
Email: gaelle.cniid@libertysurf.fr

Jim Puckett
Basel Action Network, Secretariat
c/o Asia Pacific Environmental Exchange
1827 39th Ave. E.
Seattle, WA. 98112 USA
Phone/Fax: 1-206-720-6426
Email: jpuckett@ban.org