It’s Not Local, It’s Strictly Global Business!
Posted by feww on July 17, 2009
submitted by a reader
Glorious Globalization
Hazardous Waste from UK Dumped in Brazil
Crash course on Win-Win Business formula for entrepreneurial companies and developing countries.
1. Hospitals (health authorities) and other industries in developed countries save lots of money by contracting out their hazardous waste disposal to “waste lieutenants” [“entrepreneurial” companies with no expert knowledge of waste disposal.] No questions asked.
2. The waste lieutenants make lots of money by outsourcing the disposal. [They simply ship them over to developing countries, were it is disposed of for a few dollars per ton.] No questions asked.
3. Shipping companies ask no questions! The bottom line is staying in business, whatever the moral cost.
4. The receiving agents often dump the hazardous waste in municipal dumps, or in any old quarry, mineshaft, dump they can find. NO QUESTIONS ASKED!
5. The government in the exporting countries show concern whenever the news breaks out.
Brazil discovers 64 containers with 1,400 tonnes of hazardous UK waste shipped to three of its ports
Brazilian police said they found batteries, condoms, nappies and syringes among the waste which was shipped in illegally.
In a further discovery they found 25 containers with hospital waste from England.
Hazardous Hospital Waste. Source www. thehindubusinessline.com. Image may be subject to copyright.
“The finds were made in the port of Santos near to Sao Paulo and two other ports in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.” BBC reported.
“The authorities say they fear it may represent an attempt to use South America’s largest country as a dumping ground for hazardous waste in the way that has happened in other parts of the world, including Africa.”
“Public resentment over the issue increased when it was revealed that inside one of the containers was a collection of dirty toys with a note in Portuguese saying they should be washed before being given to ‘poor Brazilian children.'”
A third batch of containers were also discovered which reportedly included bags full of blood, and other dangerous hospital waste.
“Five companies have already been fined in Brazil but lawyers for the importers say they were deceived and believed they were being sent plastic for recycling.”
The authorities in Brazil suspect that two UK companies are involved in the export of hazardous waste.
Related Links:
- Naples Garbage: First Commercial Dividends
- Naples: The Triangle of Death
- Naples Garbage Opera – Act II
- Seeking Toxic Asylum
Fire Earth 
feww said
LONDON (Reuters) – A ship laden with British containers suspected of containing toxic waste illegally exported to Brazil arrived back in the UK on Friday.
Brazilian health authorities say the shipment, supposedly recyclable waste, was in fact full of condoms, syringes and human waste.
The material was found by Brazilian officials in three of the country’s ports over the past few months.
Britain’s Environment Agency said 71 of the 89 containers have arrived at Felixstowe docks in Suffolk, with the rest expected from next Tuesday.
more…
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE57K2BZ20090821
feww said
News Update
Outraged Brazil ships rubbish back to Britain
Wed Aug 5, 2009 5:16pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5745BW20090805
By Peter Murphy
SANTOS, Brazil (Reuters) – A ship loaded with 1,600 tonnes of rubbish set sail on Wednesday to return the rotting cargo to Britain from Brazil, where it had been shipped falsely declared as plastic for recycling.
Eighty-nine containers packed with trash that includes dirty diapers, used syringes, food waste and computer parts were hoisted on to the freighter MSC Oriane in the early morning hours at Santos, South America’s largest port.
The incident outraged many Brazilians and prompted President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to criticize Britain and developed nations for urging higher environmental standards while using developing nations as garbage dumps.
Brazilian environment minister Carlos Minc has said he would raise the issue with Britain’s climate change minister, Ed Miliband, who is currently on an official visit to Brazil.
“It never really became a danger to health because it never left the port,” said Ingrid Oberg, head of the Brazilian environment enforcement agency Ibama in Santos, watching as the containers of garbage were hoisted onto the ship.
“The danger was if it was thrown away. There was a really bad smell and larvae and material decomposing,” she said.
Criminal investigations are under way in Britain and Brazil to discover how the waste came to be shipped this year and last to Santos and another port further south.
Brazil has fined firms that imported or handled the waste.
The importing firms said they had been expecting shipments of recyclable plastic. But even the company that alerted the authorities to the trash was fined because it had no license to recycle, Oberg said.
Brazilian law prohibits the import of household waste for any purpose, including recycling.
British police arrested three men in late July but no formal charges have been brought against them and they have been released on bail after surrendering their passports.(Editing by Stuart Grudgings and Eric Walsh)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
feww said
Brazil prepares to return UK trash
Mon Jul 20, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE56J4KN20090720
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil will send 89 shipping containers of garbage, rotting and maggot-infested, back to Britain and has issued $419,000 in fines to the three Brazilian companies that imported it, the government said on Monday.
Around 1,600 tons of waste, including toilet seats, dirty diapers, used syringes and old TVs and computers, are lying in the containers at two southern ports after being sent from Britain falsely declared as a cargo of plastics.
Brazil has fined the three companies that imported the waste, Stefenon Estrategia e Marketing, Bes Assessoria e Comercio Exterior and Alphatec, environment agency IBAMA said, and said the firms would have to pay to send it back.
“If they don’t send the rubbish back they will be fined (a daily rate) until this is resolved,” said Ingrid Oberg, head of IBAMA in Santos, where the country’s largest port is located. The daily rate would be on top of the fixed penalties the government has already slapped on the firms.
Some of the trash-filled containers have been docked at the ports since November.
There was confusion over who would foot the bill to return the waste.
Britain’s Environment Agency said on Monday the company that exported the waste to Brazil also would be made to repatriate it to Britain at its own expense.
Oberg said the Brazilian companies, based in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, had shown willingness to cooperate.
The companies, who say they were expecting shipments of plastic, can contest the fines if they can prove they did not knowingly import waste that was potentially harmful to the environment and to public health.
British authorities are also investigating how the waste came to be exported. ($=1.908)
(Reporting by Peter Murphy; Editing by Doina Chiacu) — © Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved