Box 15E Cases of disputed transfrontier movement of hazardous waste

The international non-governmental organisation Greenpeace has been monitoring transfrontier movement of hazardous waste worldwide since 1986. This initiative is aimed at raising environmental awareness about the threat posed by waste shipments. An inventory of waste trade operations was compiled in 1990 (Greenpeace, 1990). Up-to-date information on the status of these operations and additional illicit movement of waste are published in the Toxic Trade Update newsletter and made available on the computer network Econet (named haz.net) (Greenpeace, 1993a and b). A large number of examples involving the movement of highly hazardous waste across European countries and between Europe and other world regions are provided. Some of these shipments disregard national regulations and international conventions on the transboundary movement of hazardous waste. A large part of the shipments find their way through regulations by the promise of recycling. In fact, what happens is that wastes move from countries with stricter regulations and higher disposal costs to countries with fewer regulations and where disposal of such waste is cheaper. This is a situation that the Basle Convention should now alleviate. A few examples reported by Greenpeace (1993a and b) are given below.

German waste in the UK and Poland

In November 1989, some 470 tonnes of hazardous waste containing organic solvents, acid, alkalis and heavy metals were sent from Germany to the UK and stored in two warehouses. Some were sent directly to landfill sites in Essex. Three loads of 20 tonnes were sent to Poland. The wastes were exported as dangerous goods and described as non-ferrous metal residues. Therefore no transfrontier shipping documentation accompanied the waste. This waste importation was discovered in August 1990 by the Essex County Council. The shipment was made by a German waste broker and a private UK company in Wales. The case ended up in court and the waste was returned to Germany.

Mercury waste at Almaden, Spain

In June 1990, thousands of tonnes of mercury-contaminated waste were found in a dump site of the district of Almaden, 300 km south of Madrid. The case involved the dumping, since 1980, of about 11 900 tonnes of hazardous waste from chlor-alkali, battery and pesticide manufacture in Germany, Italy, France, UK, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and The Netherlands. Part of the waste also came from the USA and Australia. In 1988 and 1989, 2000 tonnes of waste were transferred and buried in a landfill at San Fernando de Henares, east of Madrid. In February 1991, under order from the Spanish government, the waste was buried in a new landfill.

German waste in Albania

More than 500 tonnes of pesticides either banned or expired were exported from Germany to Albania between 1991 and 1992. According to the German Environment Ministry, the pesticides included formulations of lindane and other organochlorine compounds and herbicides with high concentrations of dioxins. Disposing of such waste in Germany would have cost at least DM 8000 per tonne. According to Greenpeace, the wastes were still sitting in barrels deposited on six sites in August 1994: the port of Durres; in Bazja railway station in northern Albania; in a warehouse at Milot; and in the towns of Lushnja, Fier and Skodri in western Albania. In January 1993 the Albanian authorities asked Germany to help resolve the problem. The German Environmental Ministry has recently agreed to take back the waste and has allocated a budget of DM 9.6 million for remediation.

UK waste in Mexico and Bolivia

Between 1992 and 1993, a UK company dismantling the Capper Pass metal smelter in Humberside, northeast England, was reported to be sending tin slags to Bolivia and Mexico. The tin smelter closed in 1991 after operating since 1937. The clean-up of the site resulted in 3500 tonnes of dusts originating from the electrostatic precipitator of the plant's secondary furnace. The shipment of 600 tonnes of this waste went to a disposal plant in the area of Oruro in the high Andean Plateau. This plant had closed several months before the arrival of the wastes. A consignment of 500 tonnes of waste was also sent from Felixstowe, UK, destined for Mexico and, after a protest from Greenpeace, was returned to the original site. However, a shipment of 39 tonnes of toxic waste had already been sent to the Mexican industrial site at San Luis Potosi. Over 3000 tonnes of the waste are now stored at the Capper Pass site.

Sources: Greenpeace, 1990; Greenpeace, 1993a; Greenpeace, 1993b