space Press Releases, News Stories

The Yomiuri Shimbun

About 2,700 tons of Japanese garbage in 122 containers was shipped back to Japan on Monday and unloaded Tuesday. The export of the garbage violates the Basel Convention that regulates cross-border transportation of hazardous waste and its disposal.

Because, under the convention, an exporting country is responsible for the collection of such waste, the Japanese government chartered a ship for the return of the garbage from the Philippines. The "forced repatriation" of waste was a duty that brings shame upon Japan as a member of the international community.

Much of the garbage is infectious and toxic medical waste. Nisso Ltd., an industrial waste-processing company in Tochigi Prefecture, exported the items under the description "waste paper for recycling." The exposure was the first in Japan of large-scale dumping of waste in contravention of international law, but it is doubtful that this is just a one-off isolated incident. It is almost certain that there are other cases in which waste is exported to developing countries with less restrictive regulations under the guise of "resource exports" for recycling.

The illegal practice appears to be well established. Leave no stone unturned in investigation Investigative and administrative authorities have a duty to expose the entire process, from start to finish, by which the returned waste turned up in the Philippines, from the firms that produced it to the one that processed it and the Philippine company that imported it.

The system with a flaw that allowed the waste to be illegally exported should be reexamined. The current controversy illustrates the seriousness of the waste-disposal problem in Japan. The industrial waste-processing company in question had earlier been found responsible for the illegal dumping of about 8,000 tons of waste in Ibaraki Prefecture, Nagano Prefecture and elsewhere.

The company might have stepped up illegal dumping after being forced to shut down incinerators that it failed to upgrade to meet tightened standards for dioxin emissions that were introduced in late December of 1998. It seems that the latest case has revealed a vicious circle in which tighter rules encouraged more illegal dumping, and, in turn, more tightening of controls to follow. One of the offshoots was the illegal exportation to the Philippines.

Tackle the problem at its source

To break the circle, we must clarify and expand the responsibility of waste producers, thereby tackling the problem at its source. This issue is addressed in a bill for the revision of the Wastes Disposal Law due to be submitted during the next ordinary Diet session.

But the current law already stipulates responsibility of waste producers. They are required to record details of waste in a manifesto, hand it to a waste-disposal company and confirm how disposal was made. The reality of the situation is, however, that waste producers consider their responsibility to be at an end at the second the waste is handed over to the disposal firm.

Rampant falsification of manifestos enables them to get away with it, making the system of record-keeping null and void. The revision bill would make it mandatory for waste producers to verify correct disposal in line with details recorded on manifestos. The producer knows best about the content and composition of its waste and should be made duty-bound to see its disposal through to the end.

The revision bill also seeks to lay a level of responsibility with waste producers for the recovery of waste found to have been dumped illegally or improperly disposed of in other ways. This burden must be distributed fairly. It costs several hundreds of millions of yen to dispose of waste shipped back to Japan. The cost will be borne by the Environment Agency, Health and Welfare and International Trade and Industry ministries instead of the waste-disposal company. Despite the extent of the disgrace, we must seize the opportunity presented by the latest illegal exportation case to formulate a new waste-disposal policy.