Greenpeace Annual Review

It is fully ten years since we identified the scandal of the trade in toxic waste. And it was in the autumn of 1993 that Greenpeace investigators tracked a suspect shipment of toxic wastes from Birmingham, England, to Brazil, where it was imported as micro-nutrients to be used as soil fertiliser. We exposed the false documentation of the wastes and secured their return to Britain. But it was just one example of a growing international scandal - the increasing habit of rich nations dumping waste on poor ones.

It is believed that roughly two million tons of toxic detritus were exported each year from North America and Europe. At best, it is worthless. But, at worst, it is deadly, often carcinogenic. Greenpeace has identified fertiliser dust containing lead and cadmium going to Bangladesh: horrifying levels of lead in soil and sediments in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines; an 8,000-ton shipment of petroleum-contaminated soil going from Hawaii to the Marshall Islands to build an artificial reef; shiploads of toxic incinerator ash going from Philadelphia to Panama to build an ocean causeway.
	Investigation into these atrocities has involved Greenpeace in a truly global campaign, which reached from South-east Asia to Latin America, Eastern Europe and the CIS states to the Pacific, as well as the industrialised backyards responsible for the toxic waste exports.
The campaign involved lobbying, direct actions and boat campaigns, with a peak of activities targeted at the International Basel Convention in March 1994. We achieved a significant environmental victory. The 65 nations involved in the Basel Convention adopted a complete ban on the export of all hazardous wastes from OECD countries to non-OECD countries. It was a triumph, not just for Greenpeace, not just for the environment, but also for the poorer nations, who stood solidly against the richer countries - it was a triumph for global democracy and justice, in fact.
	The campaign had lasted ten years. We will continue to monitor progress and implementation of the Basel Convention