[Dioxin-l] R.P. case bares inadequacy of waste rules
Neil Tangri
ntangri@essential.org
Wed, 12 Jan 2000 11:37:59 -0500
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm
January 12, 2000
Govt begins unloading batch of waste returned from R.P.
Yomiuri Shimbun
A government-chartered vessel carrying a large amount of
garbage--including hazardous hospital waste that was
illegally exported to
the Philippines by a Japanese company--arrived in Tokyo
on Tuesday, and
workers began unloading the 122 containers at Oi Pier.
Police will soon launch a full-scale investigation into
the garbage shipment
that is believed to be a violatation of the Basel
Convention on the shipment
of hazardous waste.
It is the first time that the government has recovered
such waste since the
international convention came into effect eight years
ago.
The government will likely pay the 60 million yen
transportation cost and
other costs, such as incineration expenses, which will
total more than 100
million yen, for Nisso Ltd., an industrial waste
disposal company located in
Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture, as the company president is
reportedly missing.
The MV Pulsar that transported the waste docked at about
7:20 a.m., and
officials from the International Trade and Industry
Ministry and the
Environment Agency were present at the unloading.
Investigators from the
Tochigi and Nagano prefectural police confirmed the
arrival of the
containers. The containers weighed about 2,700 tons in
total.
Ayako Sekine, 31, a member of Greenpeace Japan, who was
watching the
containers being unloaded at the pier said she was
ashamed about the
garbage shipment to the Philippines because it caused
"profound distrust
toward Japan in the international community."
"The government should strengthen its supervision to
prevent such an
incident from being repeated," she said. "Our
organization will continue to
monitor the disposal of the waste."
The Health and Welfare Ministry, the Environment Agency
and MITI issued
orders to Nisso, at about 11 a.m., to correctly dispose
of the garbage.
Tuesday was the deadline for the government to recover
the garbage under
the Basel Convention. The government received an
official report from the
Philippine government about the illegal shipment in
December.
The government sent inspectors to the Philippines to
investigate the claim,
and they confirmed that the garbage contained infectious
hospital waste such
as used hypodermic needles and containers of intravenous
drips. The
government then ordered Nisso to recover the garbage
while accusing it of
violating the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control
Law on Dec. 24.
An Environment Agency official said, "We had to act
promptly as a
Philippine newspaper wrote that the shipment was
'Japan's third invasion
following the war and economic invasion.' Otherwise, it
would have become
a serious diplomatic issue."
Mitsuo Ohashi, chairman of secretariat of the Japan
Network on the Waste
Landfill, said, "Developing countries tend to be
targeted as a destination for
garbage in the name of recycling because their
environmental regulations are
less strict and labor costs are cheaper than those in
Japan. We should see
the latest incident as the tip of the iceberg."
Police find illegal dumping
The joint investigation headquarters of the Tochigi and
Nagano prefectural
police will in a few days start inspecting the recovered
garbage on suspicion
that its export violated the Foreign Exchange and
Foreign Trade Control
Law.
The headquarters also plans to request a warrant of
arrest against Hiromi
Ito, 49, the president of the industrial waste disposal
company, after
searching the company's office and storage facilities.
According to the joint investigation team, Ito bought a
building materials
company in Oyama in late 1997, and converted it into the
company's main
office. As the regulations on dioxin emissions were
tightened, the Tochigi
prefectural government instructed the company to upgrade
an incineration
facility in late 1998.
However, before making the necessary improvements to the
facility, Nisso
applied to the prefectural government to cease
operations at the facility in
October 1999.
Copyright 1999 The Yomiuri Shimbun
/ R.P. case bares inadequacy of waste rules
Yomiuri Shimbun
The illegal export of hazardous waste by a Japanese
company to the
Philippines can only be termed a disgraceful
international environmental
crime. About 2,700 tons of Japanese garbage in 122
containers was
shipped back to Japan on Monday and unloaded Tuesday.
The export of the garbage violates the Basel Convention
that regulates
cross-border transportation of hazardous waste and its
disposal. Because,
under the convention, an exporting country is responsible
for the collection
of such waste, the Japanese government chartered a ship
for the return of
the garbage from the Philippines.
The "forced repatriation" of waste was a duty that brings
shame upon Japan
as a member of the international community.
Much of the garbage is infectious and toxic medical
waste. Nisso Ltd., an
industrial waste-processing company in Tochigi
Prefecture, exported the
items under the description "waste paper for recycling."
The exposure was the first in Japan of large-scale
dumping of waste in
contravention of international law, but it is doubtful
that this is just a one-off
isolated incident. It is almost certain that there are
other cases in which waste
is exported to developing countries with less restrictive
regulations under the
guise of "resource exports" for recycling. The illegal
practice appears to be
well established.
Leave no stone unturned in investigation
Investigative and administrative authorities have a duty
to expose the entire
process, from start to finish, by which the returned
waste turned up in the
Philippines, from the firms that produced it to the one
that processed it and
the Philippine company that imported it. The system with
a flaw that allowed
the waste to be illegally exported should be reexamined.
The current controversy illustrates the seriousness of
the waste-disposal
problem in Japan.
The industrial waste-processing company in question had
earlier been found
responsible for the illegal dumping of about 8,000 tons
of waste in Ibaraki
Prefecture, Nagano Prefecture and elsewhere. The company
might have
stepped up illegal dumping after being forced to shut
down incinerators that
it failed to upgrade to meet tightened standards for
dioxin emissions that
were introduced in late December of 1998.
It seems that the latest case has revealed a vicious
circle in which tighter
rules encouraged more illegal dumping, and, in turn, more
tightening of
controls to follow. One of the offshoots was the illegal
exportation to the
Philippines.
Tackle the problem at its source
To break the circle, we must clarify and expand the
responsibility of waste
producers, thereby tackling the problem at its source.
This issue is
addressed in a bill for the revision of the Wastes
Disposal Law due to be
submitted during the next ordinary Diet session.
But the current law already stipulates responsibility of
waste producers.
They are required to record details of waste in a
manifesto, hand it to a
waste-disposal company and confirm how disposal was made.
The reality of
the situation is, however, that waste producers consider
their responsibility
to be at an end at the second the waste is handed over to
the disposal firm.
Rampant falsification of manifestos enables them to get
away with it, making
the system of record-keeping null and void.
The revision bill would make it mandatory for waste
producers to verify
correct disposal in line with details recorded on
manifestos. The producer
knows best about the content and composition of its waste
and should be
made duty-bound to see its disposal through to the end.
The revision bill also seeks to lay a level of
responsibility with waste
producers for the recovery of waste found to have been
dumped illegally or
improperly disposed of in other ways. This burden must be
distributed fairly.
It costs several hundreds of millions of yen to dispose
of waste shipped back
to Japan. The cost will be borne by the Environment
Agency, Health and
Welfare and International Trade and Industry ministries
instead of the
waste-disposal company.
Despite the extent of the disgrace, we must seize the
opportunity presented
by the latest illegal exportation case to formulate a new
waste-disposal
policy.