Australia: toxic exports outlaw

October 15, 1997
Issue 

By Barry Healy

A Greenpeace protest in Hong Kong Harbour in September stymied an attempt to export illegally Australian toxic computer scrap.

Early on September 22, 10 Greenpeace activists occupied the freighter Zim Sydney in Hong Kong Harbour and unfurled two huge banners over three containers that had been exported from Sydney by Industrial Trading NSW of Homebush Bay on September 12. One banner read "Stop Toxic Trade" and the other, in Chinese, "Hong Kong — First Asylum Port for Foreign Garbage".

The 12-metre-long containers were filled with scrap computer components containing lead, cadmium, barium, cables and casings coated with brominated and chlorinated flame retardant and circuit boards containing polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB). The entire shipment had quietly slipped out of Australia without a government export permit and without "prior informed consent", as required under the Australian Hazardous Waste (Exports and Imports) Act, 1996.

Following the action, Hong Kong authorities seized the cargo and ordered its return to Australia. A Federal Police investigation has begun. Under the act, fines of up to $1 million or five years in prison apply.

Since the early 1990s, Australia has been one of the worst offenders in exporting toxic waste to less developed countries, especially in Asia. In 1996, Australia exported 8569 tonnes of hazardous waste, including scrap lead batteries and toxic zinc and copper ash, to Asian countries.

The biggest waste recipients were India, China, Indonesia and the Philippines. Official figures show that in January 40 tonnes of zinc ash were sent to India without any export permit. Another 266 tonnes of lead waste and scrap went to India in January and February — all without the required permits.

In March 1994, the Melbourne-based Hi Technology Metal Recyclers exported 42 tonnes of hazardous computer scrap to the Philippines (Industrial Trading NSW and Hi Technology Metal Recyclers share the same board of directors).

Following a Greenpeace blockade in Manila Harbour, authorities found the load had four times the safe level of cadmium and excessive PCBs. President Fidel Ramos ordered the shipment back to Australia.

Transfers of toxic material from OECD countries to poor nations are supposed to be limited by the United Nations Environment Program Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, signed in Basel, Switzerland, in 1989.

The great loophole is shipments for "recycling". In many cases, "recycling" in the Third World is conducted under extremely low safety standards. The poisonous pollution caused by this results in what Indian environmentalists call "slow-motion Bhopals" — a reference to the 1994 Union Carbide chemical killing of 3000 people at Bhopal.

Australia shipped 1887 tonnes of lead battery scrap to the Philippines last year. People living near the Philippine Recyclers Inc plant, 25 kilometres north of Manila, complain that pollution from the factory is destroying their agriculture.

Locals complain of nausea, burning eyes, sore throats and respiratory ailments. Children have been tested with elevated lead levels in their blood.

The Hazardous Waste (Exports and Imports) Act requires waste traders to obtain export permits from the federal environment minister before sending hazardous wastes to non-OECD countries. Australia is supposed to obtain prior consent from the importing countries before the cargo leaves our ports.

No export permits have been issued since the act was amended in December, yet the toxic trade continues.

Three ways in which companies evade the law are:

lillegality — simply sending it off without the permit;

ltranshipment — hiding the true destination of the cargo by routing it through intermediate ports like Singapore and Hong Kong;

lmiscoding — Australian Customs codes don't match those of the Basel Convention, and the Bureau of Statistics uses categories that obscure toxic export aggregates.

The convention was tightened in 1994 to include the Basel Ban, which is to stop exports for "recovery operations" — that is, phoney recycling — by December 31.

The United States refuses to abide by the Basel Convention or the ban and is guilty of dumping toxic waste in Latin America.

However, the European Union, once one of the worst offenders, has now not only endorsed the ban but has prohibited bilateral trade agreements between EU and Third World governments after December 31.

By contrast, since 1990 Australia has attempted to sidestep the ban by seeking bilateral arrangements with the Philippines, India, China and South Korea.

Hundreds of tonnes of Australian plastic waste have been shipped to China, Hong Kong, India, Kiribati, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan and Vanuatu.

Australia has dumped tin plate waste in Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore.

Australian zinc waste and scrap has gone to Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

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