NETHERLANDS ACCEPTS SHIPMENT OF TAIWANESE MERCURY WASTE

20 March 2000

AMSTERDAM -- Greenpeace and Basel Action Network (BAN) have discovered that the Netherlands is the first country to allow the import and incineration of mercury laden hazardous waste from Formosa Plastic Corp. (FPC), the largest PVC manufacturer in the world based in Taiwan. The import has been permitted despite a global two- year protest against FPC and a call for the company to solve its waste problems rather than export them.

The shipment was previously refused entry into the United States, France and Germany. The 32 containers of toxic waste, shipped secretly from Taiwan to the Netherlands last December, is a fraction of the full load, estimated to be 9,300 metric tonnes stored in more than 300 shipping containers, reported to still be in Taiwan. The mercury contaminated waste was returned from Cambodia last year following an international hazardous waste dumping scandal in December 1998.

The waste, dumped by Formosa Plastics on Cambodia, was implicated in the deaths of two people who handled the waste and another 4 people that died following a riot and panic due to the arrival of the waste at the end of 1998.

Throughout 1999, the FPC tried to re-export the waste, first to the United States, then France and Germany. In every case they were stopped by a network of environmentalists and community groups, including Greenpeace and BAN, that vowed to make FPC take responsibility for its waste and stop imposing it on other communities and countries.

"The waste must be returned to Formosa Plastics own PVC facility immediately," said Greenpeace China Executive Director Wai Chi. "Rather than looking for hiding places for their wastes around the globe, they should stop generating the problem and clean its own house," he added.

Greenpeace and BAN stress that the export is in violation of the spirit of the Basel Convention - an international treaty, which calls for national self-sufficiency in hazardous waste management and seeks to minimise the trade of hazardous wastes. In order to comply with the Basel Convention, FPC got permission for export from officials in Beijing. The paperwork was accepted despite the fact that Chinese Environmental Protection Agency officials do not have control over industrial facilities in Taiwan.

"We are shocked that the Dutch Government has granted a license to import mercury tainted waste from Formosa Plastic for incineration when the rest of the world has refused to take part in this toxic shell game," said Jim Puckett of BAN.

The waste is known to contain high levels of mercury and low levels of PCBs, dioxins and furans. The official license granted to the first 32 containers identifies the cargo as "empty barrels contaminated with mercury".

According to media reports, the drums are not empty but contain mercury contaminated protective gear. But according to BAN and Greenpeace, which sent a team to Cambodia to inspect the wastes, some of the drums were used and contaminated with unknown wastes before they were loaded with the mercury contaminated wastes. According to the Dutch Government, the remaining 300 containers of waste have not yet arrived in the Netherlands.

"The fact remains that mercury does not burn but evaporates in an incinerator, making its so-called ‘treatment’ ineffectual whilst allowing some inevitable losses to the environment," said Eco Matser from Greenpeace Netherlands, who discovered the waste. "Toxic wastes such as these should be banned. In the meantime, the only appropriate procedure for this waste is for FPC to contain the contamination and store it on its own corporate property in above-ground, storage where it can be safely monitored."

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

- Eco Matser, Toxic Coordinator Greenpeace Netherlands, in Amsterdam, tel. +31 20 524 9559, mob. +31 6 212 96919;
- Jim Puckett, Basel Action Network, based in Seattle USA, tel/fax: +(1) 206 720 6426;
- Ho, Wai-Chi (Mr.), Executive Director, Greenpeace China, in Hong Kong, tel: +(852) 2854 8355;
- Teresa Merilainen, Press Officer, Greenpeace International Tel: +31 20 5236637

Follow Greenpeace's Toxic Free Asia Tour on the web: www.greenpeace.org/~toxics/toxfreeasia
BAN website is here: www.ban.org

In December 1998, the hazardous waste was originally illegally dumped in Cambodia. After two people were reported dead and hundreds ill due to exposure to the waste dump, FPC was forced to bring the hazardous waste back to Taiwan. In February 1999, FPC tried to ship the waste for disposal in the US. First they targeted a Latino minority community in California, then in May 1999, a waste dump near a Native American community in Nevada and finally a disposal facility in Idaho. By July 1999, the plans to dump in the USA were abandoned. In October 1999, FPC moved their strategy to Europe and attempted to burn some of the waste at the Tredi incinerator in France and dump the remaining part in Alsace. After the plan failed, the PVC company tried to ship the waste to Germany, where it was refused, too. The Netherlands is the first country to accept the FPC toxic waste.