space Press Releases, News Stories

by DANIELLE KNIGHT, IPS

The Taiwanese company, Formosa Plastics, sparked an international furor by dumping the hazardous waste in Cambodia, a move that allegedly caused several deaths.

When the Cambodian government demanded that toxic barrels be removed, the US Waste company Safety-Kleen was contracted by the corporation to move the waste to a desert landfill near a low- income Latino community in California close to the Mexico border.

But after protests from US environmentalists that the waste was too toxic, and violated US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations, Safety-Kleen canceled the contract this week.

About 36,000 barrels of the hazardous substance are now headed back to the Formosa plant in Taiwan, according to the company.

''This is an enormous victory for health and environmental justice,'' said Bradley Angel, executive director of California- based Greenaction. ''Poor communities in California, Cambodia or Taiwan should not be dumping grounds for deadly wastes.''

Safety-Kleen's announcement came shortly after they received a letter from the EPA requiring the company to delay the shipment to the United States pending inconsistencies on reports on the toxicity of the mercury waste.

The EPA had originally approved the shipment which Safety-Kleen described as ``low-grade'' mercury waste from the production of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, pipe. But US environmental groups said the agency relied on only one sample of the waste provided by Safety-Kleen.

Groups provided the agency with the results of an independent test conducted by the Hong Kong EPA, the National Institute for Minimata Disease, and other organisations which documented very high levels of mercury waste that exceeded federal regulations for storage.

Environmentalists also said the shipment violated President Bill Clinton's executive order on Environmental Justice which required the government to ensure that racial minorities and low-income communities are not disproportionately burdened by environmental hazards.

''Formosa Plastic appears to practice environmental injustice as policy on a global scale,'' said Jim Puckett, director of the Seattle-based Basel Action Network, named after the United Nations convention on trade in hazardous waste.

''First the company dumps its poisons on its own communities in Taiwan and then after public protest dumps it on the poorest country in the hemisphere,'' he said. ''And later it hoped to saddle one of California's low income Latino communities with its toxic legacy.''

Taiwan must be forced to take responsibility, Puckett added. ''Only then will the company have an incentive to stop producing toxic materials in the first place,'' he said.

But Formosa Palstic's president Lee Chih-tsun said the controversial waste would only be stored temporarily in Taiwan.

''We have no intention to keep the stuff here (in Taiwan),'' Lee said at a news briefing. ''We want to ship it to an advanced country, preferably the United States.''

In December last year, the company dumped 3,000 tons of the waste in a field near Sihanoukville, Cambodia. Several poor villagers died after coming in contact with the waste because they did not know it was toxic.

Villagers living near by emptied out chunks of the cement- like material from the white plastic sacks to use for tents and canopies and bedding.

''We thought we were in luck,'' one person told reporters. ''For me the bags were just what I needed to make a sleeping mat.''

Deaths believed to be linked to the waste sparked widespread panic and caused four deaths from traffic accidents as residents fled town. The Cambodian government, responding to public outrage, ordered Formosa Plastics to remove the waste within 60 days.

Sen Jiing Lim, a plant manager at Formosa Plastics, told reporters that the waste had been processed using strict quality control techniques. The company said people came into contact with the waste because of mishandling by its original waste- disposal broker.

"No mercury will leak out and cause harm to human bodies,'' he said, referring to the shipment of waste once headed for Los Angeles. ''The technique has proven the most reliable in the world."

Despite this claim, the Cambodian environment minister Mok Mareth said he did not care where the waste went as long as it lefthis country. ''I don't know about the deal,'' he said. ``All I want is for the waste to be shipped out of Cambodia.''

No community seems to want to have the waste stored nearby and environmental groups internationally are keeping a close watch on where it may end up.

''We demand that plans to import waste for dumping in low- income communities of colour cease in the United States and everywhere,'' said Angel. ''We will continue to oppose such environmental racism.''

''We are very happy this waste will finally be removed from Cambodian soil,'' added Lily Hsueh of the California-based Taiwan Environmental Action Network.

''International groups must be vigilant to ensure that this waste is stored safely and not be allowed to afflict more people or contaminate more places, whether in Cambodia, the United States or in Taiwan,'' she said.