TOXIC FREE ASIA TOUR
The SV Rainbow Warrior Tour in Asia

TOUR LOGBOOK

27 April 2000 - Greenpeace blocks unloading of industrial waste, Seto Sea, Japan.

Greenpeace activists today blocked the unloading point of an industrial toxic waste dump at Kamikuro Island, in the Seto Inland Sea National Park, South East of Hiroshima. Using the flagship Rainbow Warrior, the activists occupied the loading barge and displayed a banner, which reads "Don't Dump in the Seto Sea " in Japanese and "Stop Toxic Dumps" in English.

Some 640,000 tonnes of waste from outside the area is annually shipped to the Kamikuro Island and to other islands in the Seto Sea. Greenpeace warns that this waste includes materials such as incinerator-ash and industrial sludges, which are contaminated with a range of toxic heavy metals and other hazardous substances. Greenpeace sampling results from the Kamikuro landfill discharge reveal significantly elevated levels of lead, as well as serious contamination of copper and manganese.

"Dumping hazardous waste creates a toxic time bomb which will eventually poison its surroundings. The Kamikuro Island is situated in the middle of an important and vulnerable ecological area, which has for that very reason been classified as a national park. No way can this practice be acceptable," said Ayako Sekine, Greenpeace Toxics Campaigner in Japan.

"Dumping in the Kamikuro is literally poisoning our own dinner. The Seto Inland Sea is a major source of seafood for millions of Japanese," added Sekine.

Since dumping started in 1991, a total 2 million tonnes of industrial and municipal solid waste has been dumped at Kamikuro Island. The operator of the Kamikuro dump is Daiyu Co, a Tokyo-based waste management company. It takes waste from as far away as Kanagawa Prefecture and Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo, and ships it to the Seto Sea.

Greenpeace called on the local governments to create a moratorium on new waste dumps and lay out concrete policy proposals to promote waste reduction as well as clean production.

"Dumping hazardous waste on an island, which is within a national park is unforgivable and must stop. The aim should be to reduce and eliminate waste through clean production, not dumping", said Matt Ruchel, Toxic Free Asia Tour Coordinator.


More info from our Global Toxic Hotspots: Seto Inland Sea (Teshima)

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