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Press Release of Basel Action Network (BAN) and Greenpeace

32 containers of toxic waste were shipped secretly from Taiwan to the Netherlands last December. These containers represent a small fraction of the full load estimated to be around 9,300 metric tonnes stored in more than 300 shipping containers still sitting at the harbor in Taiwan. The mercury-tainted waste was returned from Cambodia last year following an international toxic waste dumping scandal in December of 1998. The waste dumped by Formosa Plastics on Cambodia was implicated in the deaths of two persons who handled the waste and another 4 persons that died following a riot and panic due to the arrival of the wastes.

Throughout 1999, FPC tried to re-export the waste, first to the United States, then France and Germany. In every case they were frustrated by a network of environmentalists and community groups that vowed to make FPC take responsibility for its waste and stop victimizing other communities and countries with it. Greenpeace and BAN vows to fight the disposal of these 32 containers in the Netherlands and to prevent any more such importation.

"The waste must be returned to Formosa Plastic's own PVC facility immediately, " said Greenpeace China Executive Director Wai Chi. "Rather than looking for hiding places for their wastes around the globe, they should stop generating wastes they can't deal with responsibly, and begin to clean up the mess at home they have already made."

BAN and Greenpeace called the export a violation of the spirit of the Basel Convention -- an international treaty which calls for national self-sufficiency in hazardous waste management and seeks to minimize the transboundary movements of hazardous wastes. Seeking legal compliance with the Basel Convention, FPC managed to get the signatures of officials in Beijing that claimed they were the competent authorities over Taiwan waste. The paperwork was accepted despite the fact that Chinese Environmental Protection Agency officials do not have real control over industrial facilities in Taiwan.

"We are shocked that the Dutch Government has granted a license to import mercury tainted waste from Formosa Plastic for incineration when the rest of the world has refused to take part in this toxic shell game." said Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network (BAN) an international waste trade watchdog group that has been tracking FPC's global dumping efforts. "Not only will this pollute the people and environment of the Netherlands, but this contract also poisons the spirit of the Basel Convention."

The waste is known to contain high levels of mercury and contains low levels of PCBs, dioxins and furans as well. The official license granted to the first 32 containers identify the cargo as "empty barrels contaminated with mercury." However, according to certain media reports, the drums are not empty but contain mercury contaminated protective gear. Also, according to BAN and Greenpeace, which sent a team to Cambodia to inspect the wastes, the drums were used and contaminated with unknown oils and solvents wastes before they were loaded with the mercury contaminated wastes. According to the Dutch Government the remaining part of the total waste cargo has not arrived in the Netherlands yet.

"The fact remains that mercury does not burn, rather it vaporizes in an incinerator. Thus this so-called treatment is nothing more than moving it from one form to another while allowing some inevitable losses to the environment," said Eco Matser from Greenpeace Netherlands, who discovered the waste now stored in Rotterdam. "The appropriate procedure for this waste is to have FPC stabilize the material so that it becomes biologically unavailable and store it on their own corporate property in above-ground monitored safe storage."

For more information check our websites: http://www.greenpeace.org and http://www.ban.org

Contacts:

Eco Matser, Toxic Coordinator Greenpeace Netherlands, based in Amsterdam, tel. (31)20 - 5249559, mob. (31) 6 - 212 96919 or email eco.matser@ams.greenpeace.org

Jim Puckett, Basel Action Network, based in Seattle USA, Phone/Fax: 1.206.720.6426 or email: jpuckett@ban.org

Ho, Wai-Chi (Mr.) Executive Director, Greenpeace China, based in Hong Kong, tel (852) 2854 8355 or email: Ho.Wai.Chi@dialb.greenpeace.org

Note to the Editor:

The PVC waste was originally illegally dumped in Cambodia in December 1998. After 2 people were reported dead and hundreds others reported ill due to exposure to the waste dump, FPC had to bring the hazardous waste back to Taiwan. In February 1999, FPC then tried to ship the waste for disposal in the USA. First they targeted a Latino minority community in California. In May 1999 a waste dump near a Native American community in Nevada and was targeted and later a disposal facility in Idaho. By July 1999 the plans to dump in the USA had been killed by a mobilization of labor and environmental activists. In October 1999, FPC moved their strategy to Europe and attempted export the wastes to the Tredi incinerator in France and a landfill near Alsace. After that plan failed the PVC company next tried to ship the waste to Germany, but that door was shut down too. The Netherlands is the first country to accept the FPC toxic waste.