The murky world of waste trade

To most people waste does not sound like a big business. But as one former president of the world bank once said - "I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that." Before recent regulation put an end to the trade, waste of all kinds flowed freely between developed countries eager for cheap disposal and developing countries desperate for the foreign exchange accepting the waste generated. Often waste was exported to avoid stricter environmental legislation in developed countries surrounding hazardous waste disposal. These schemes often claimed to be sending waste to the developing world for 'recycling' when often facilities for correct storage, effective recycling or clean disposal only ever existed on paper.

Since the international ban attention has turned to the thousands of pollution hotspots caused by decades of hazardous waste dumping in the developing world. Many developing countries now face pollution from toxic waste dumps but have no means or resources to clean them up without help from countries were the waste originated.

In 1987 a waste company in Italy collected 3,000 barrels of hazardous waste from small companies across Italy. To maximize profits they exported the waste to Romania. The waste arrived in a Romanian port in summer of 1987. However there were no facilities in Romania to treat the waste and no proper storage facilities at the port.

During the spring of 1988, the barrels of waste were transported by ship from Romania and illegally dumped overboard into the Black Sea. A few days later the drums started washing up on Northen Turkish beaches. In total 367 barrels are known to have washed ashore, the rest remain on the seabed polluting the Black Sea. Since this time the waste has been stored in unsafe conditions in warehouse in Turkey while the Turkish and Italian governments argue over who is responsible for this toxic mess. The waste was returned by Greenpeace to Italy to highlight the responsibility they have to clean up the mess they have created by allowing the dumping of Italian waste in Eastern Europe for profit.

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