TAIWAN PLASTIC GIANT SHIPS TOXIC WASTE TO EUROPE by Assoicated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan, 3 March 2000 -- Formosa Plastics Corp., Taiwan's largest business conglomerate, has shipped to Europe some of the toxic waste it was forced to take back last year from a dump in Cambodia, a newspaper reported Friday. The company sent 3,000 tons of the mercury-laden waste to Cambodia in 1998. But the firm brought the material back after being accused of using poor nations as a dumping ground for unsafe chemical byproducts. An undisclosed amount of the waste, stored in 32 containers, was shipped to Rotterdam, Netherlands, in December for transshipment to an unidentified European country for disposal, the Central Daily News reported Friday. The remaining 325 containers are still stored in the port in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung, the newspaper said. Company officials were not immediately available to comment. The newspaper quoted unidentified Formosa Plastics officials as saying the 32 containers contained empty contaminated barrels and clothes worn by people handling the waste. Residents near Formosa Plastics' plants were opposed to a company plan of burying the waste at its factory sites. The waste was originally shipped to the coastal Cambodian town of Sihanoukville, where residents rioted and fled in panic in December 1998 after environmental officials discovered the toxic material. Last summer, four men two Cambodians and two Taiwanese were convicted in Cambodia of masterminding the import of the waste and leaving it in an exposed heap on the outskirts of Sihanoukville. Formosa Plastics has refused to pay damages to the Cambodian government or to people who became sick or died as a result of contact with the waste. Two people died after handling the 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