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By Chiu Yu-Tzu, Taipei Times Prosecutors in Taoyuan County allege that a hazardous waste handler illegally tried to export the waste to a third country TAIPEI, Taiwan, 24 August 2001 -- Environmental inspectors and prosecutors said yesterday that a Taiwan company has grossly violated statutes regarding the disposal of hazardous industrial waste. Prosecutors said yesterday they had found 50 tonnes of scrapped PC-boards deposited inside two cargo containers by the THB Environment Corp. The containers were mislabeled as "residue of copper compounds" and placed at transportation stations in Taipei County and Keelung County, ready for shipment outside the country. Though THB is licensed as an A-class waste handler, it has no license to export waste. The scrapped PC-boards were waiting for transport to a Chinese harbor by two shipping companies. The cargo containers were apparently mislabeled "residue of copper compounds" to minimize the likelihood of inspectors inquiring about the containers' contents. Environmental officials said that THB -- while licensed to handle the waste -- had not applied for any hazardous industrial waste export permits, which are issued by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA). Wang Yi-wen (¤ý¥H¤å) of the Taoyuan District Prosecutors' Office impounded the two cargo containers yesterday and had them transferred to a storage site managed by THB in Tashi township (¤j·Ë), Taoyuan County. The storage site was then sealed on Wang's order. Wu Sheng-jong (§d²±©¾), head of the EPA's North Region Branch Inspection Bureau, told the Taipei Times that yesterday's action was a follow-up to a report by environmental inspectors on July 24. "When inspecting THB's only storage site in Tashi on July 24, we discovered that about half of the hazardous industrial waste supposedly collected at the site was missing," Wu said. Wu said that THB has since April of last year collected two kinds of hazardous industrial waste -- scrapped PC-boards and copper contaminated sludge -- produced by 81 manufacturers of electronic products. THB says its statistics show it has collected 3,000 tonnes of copper-contaminated sludge and 2,000 tonnes of scrapped PC-boards, but it has never applied for an export permit. "We suspected that the waste missing from the site has either been illegally shipped to other countries or secretly dumped within Taiwan," Wu said. The EPA then reported to prosecutors THB's alleged violations of the Waste Disposal Act. According to Wu, THB has filed documents with the government stating that it has the facilities to handle 5,000 tonnes of copper-contaminated sludge and 7,200 tonnes of scrapped PC-boards per year. Wu said that THB had contracted with two waste handlers, US-based Envirosafe Services of Idaho and another firm in Hangzhou (ªC¦{), China. Prosecutors and environmental inspectors next week will re-examine all of THB's scrapped PC-boards and other waste stored on its site in a bid to trace the missing waste. FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The Basel Action Network is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability and environmental justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a `fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond `fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. More News |