SAMUI ISLAND IN DANGER OF BECOMING A GARBAGE RECEIVER

1 February 2000

SAMUI/THAILAND -- The tourist island Ko Samui on the East coast of Thailand is in danger of becoming a destination for waste disposal from other provinces, since the present expensive oversized local incinerator is running under capacity.

Greenpeace today warned the island’s population that Samui is going to be under enormous pressure to receive waste imports from elsewhere in Thailand and possibly even from overseas in order run its existing Japanese funded incinerator at full capacity. While visiting Ko Samui with its flagship Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace strongly condemned development aid arms of the Japanese Government for pushing inappropriate and polluting technologies to deal with Thailand’s garbage problem.

Samui island generates only 72 tones of garbage per day (1) whereas the island’s incinerator is designed to burn more than double this amount - 140 tons a day. At present only one furnace of the Samui incinerator is used only every 10 days.

"Incinerator companies operate on the premise that the more they burn the more they earn. Already the construction and maintenance costs from the Samui incinerator to the Thai government and the taxpayers are tremendous. The present incinerator is far from being a solution to the problem of waste in Samui but instead it has given birth to a need to either produce more waste or to import garbage” said Tara Buakamsri, Greenpeace’s Toxic Campaigner in Thailand.

Samui’s solid waste incinerator is a Japanese designed and funded facility. Built in 1997 for 501 million baht ($13.5 million USD) through a joint Thai-Japanese venture involving Palcon Co. and NKK. The incinerator construction was funded by a grant to the Public Works Department by the Japanese Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund OECF).

The 50M baht ($1.3 million USD) yearly bill that the government pays the for the operation of the incinerator essentially means that the taxpayers are currently paying Palcon-Montaney a whopping 140,449 baht per day ($3795 USD)

"It is ironic that rich countries such as Japan export dirty technologies such as incinerators while at home there is increasing pressure to reduce incineration. Also one has to ask why the incinerator has been so grossly overbuilt, unless a waste trade option is in mind", added Buakamsri.

Greenpeace’s scientific sampling result from Samui demonstrate that the ash dumped near the facility Contains high levels of the toxic heavy metals. Lead levels in the ash were around 120 times higher than background and cadmium levels around 80 times higher than background.

"We call the Thai government to reject foreign funding for new incinerators and place a moratorium on all new incineration projects. Instead we need to invest in waste prevention, source separation, composting and recycling. The incineration is simply an expensive technology which transforms potentially recyclable materials into hazardous waste", said Buakamsri.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

- Tara Buakamsri, tel: (01) 8550013 or Auaiporn Suthanthonyakorn tel: (01)820 7006; in English only Matt Ruchel Tel: +61 408 837138.


Report and other background is available on our website: www.greenpeace.org/~toxics/toxfreeasia

Pictures and footage will be available from Greenpeace at: www.greenpeace.org/library/picturedesk.html

Lead and cadmium are known neurological toxins. Lead, even at low levels, is known to impact the intellectual and behavioral development of children while cadmium is a carcinogen. Incinerators release cancer-causing and toxic chemicals from their smoke stacks including heavy metals, dioxins, furans and acid gases. Incineration of municipal, hazardous and hospital waste is generally considered to be a major source of the highly toxic dioxin emissions into the environment.

The Rainbow Warrior will be arriving in Bangkok 6 or 7 February.