Environmental dumping

Environmental dumping is the practice of transfrontier shipment of waste (household waste, industrial

Industrial waste

Industrial waste is a type of waste produced by industrial activity, such as that of factories, mills and mines. It has existed since the outset of the industrial revolution....

/nuclear waste, etc.) from one country to another. The goal is to take the waste to a country that has less strict environmental law

Environmental law

Environmental law is a complex and interlocking body of treaties, conventions, statutes, regulations, and common law that operates to regulate the interaction of humanity and the natural environment, toward the purpose of reducing the impacts of human activity...

s, or environmental laws that are not strictly enforced. The economic benefit of this practice is cheap disposal or recycling

Recycling

Recycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...

of waste without the economic regulations of the original country.

An example of an attempt at environmental dumping is the story of the decommissioned French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

aircraft carrier

Aircraft carrier

An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...

, the FS Clemenceau, which was sold to India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

to be scrapped. The Indian Supreme Court ruled that it could not enter Indian waters due to the high level of toxic waste

Toxic waste

Toxic waste is waste material that can cause death or injury to living creatures. It spreads quite easily and can contaminate lakes and rivers. The term is often used interchangeably with “hazardous waste”, or discarded material that can pose a long-term risk to health or environment.Toxic waste...

and asbestos

Asbestos

Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...

found on the ship, forcing the French government to take the Clemenceau back.

The shipment of waste between countries has been referred to as “transfrontier shipment” of waste. Transfrontier waste is shipped within the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

(EU) and between the European Union and other countries. Most of this waste is traded by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The waste is typically non-hazardous and includes metals, plastics, and paper products. In 2007, it is estimated that OECD countries exported between 4 and 5 million tons of metal and paper waste. OECD countries also exported near a half of million tons of recovered plastics in 2007. Some of these wastes that are transported can be hazardous waste

Hazardous waste

A hazardous waste is waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment. According to the U.S. environmental laws hazardous wastes fall into two major categories: characteristic wastes and listed wastes.Characteristic hazardous wastes are materials that are known...

. These hazardous wastes can cause potential health risks to humans and the environment. According to the Basel Convention

Basel Convention

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, usually known simply as the Basel Convention, is an international treaty that was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent transfer of...

, there is at least 8 million tons of hazardous waste imported and exported every year .

The Basel Convention was created in 1989 but started enforcing rules in 1992. The purpose of the Convention is to control the hazardous waste that was imported and exported throughout the EU. The Convention is a great contributor to stopping the shipment of illegal waste. In May 2005, 60 containers were seized that were on their way from the United Kingdom to China. The containers seized by Dutch authorities were supposed to be for paper but actually contained household wastes. Since neither the UK, China, nor Dutch had agreed to the importation of the wastes, the waste was shipped back. The Basel Convention also deals with the popular growing issue of E-waste. The Waste Shipment Regulation confirms what can be shipped to, from, and between EU countries. These regulation rules divide the waste into three separate lists: Green List, Amber List, and Red List.

Green List

These items are considered to be non-hazardous and more environmentally friendly. Some of these items may include paper and plastic that can be recycled. These types of shipment don’t have to receive prior permission to cross international waters and be shipped to parts of the European Union.

Amber List

Materials are considered to be mixed on this list containing both non-hazardous and hazardous parts. These materials can contain metal bearing wastes, organic and inorganic wastes, and/or organic or inorganic constituents. A company or country shipping these items would have to have prior consent before exporting the materials. As of 2007, consent for the shipment of waste is received by Dublin City Council.

Red List

This includes reasonably hazardous materials. These materials contain principally organic or inorganic constituents which include polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs).

Ocean Dumping

Shipment of waste from country to country can also involve dumping waste into the ocean. Ocean dumping has been a problem since the 19th century. In the past, it was legal to dump industrial waste into the ocean until the Ocean Dumping Act was passed in 1972. During the years of 1970 and 1980 alone, it was estimated that 25 million tons of waste including scrap metal, chemicals, and acids were dumped into the ocean. Ocean dumping can lead to eutrophication

Eutrophication

Eutrophication or more precisely hypertrophication, is the movement of a body of water′s trophic status in the direction of increasing plant biomass, by the addition of artificial or natural substances, such as nitrates and phosphates, through fertilizers or sewage, to an aquatic system...

which depletes the oxygen from the water killing marine life. Ocean dumping is placed into three lists: Gray List, Black List, and White List.

Gray List:

Water is highly contaminated and toxic on the gray list. Some of the contaminants include arsenic, lead, acids, nickel, chromium, scrap metals, and radioactive materials.

Black List

The materials listed on the black list include mercury, cadmium, plastic, oil products, radioactive waste, and anything that is solely made for biological and chemical warfare. The materials on this list are highly potent and hazardous.

White List

The white list contains every other material not already mentioned in the above lists. This list is used to make sure nothing will be dumped in the ocean and disturb or damage the coral reef ecosystems.

The most recent example of hazardous waste being dumped into the ocean occurred along the Ivory Coast in Africa in 2006. Hundreds of tons of toxic waste were dumped into the ocean from a ship by the name of Probo Koala . The ship was chartered by an international oil trader in the Netherlands . The incident was responsible for killing at least 16 people and forced thousands to flee from their homes . The waste caused damages to the health of almost 100,000 people in the nearby areas . The oil trader by the name of Trafigura paid 200 million dollars to help with cleanup of the Ivory Coast . The owner of the local company, Tommy that was responsible for disposing the chemicals in various places was charged with 20 years jail time . The man who declared that Tommy was an accomplice in the situation charged with 5 years jail time for being involved .

After this incident some new regulations on the shipment of hazardous and non-hazardous materials were implemented in 2006. According to the new regulations, the EU will no longer be able to export their hazardous wastes to developing countries that do not have the capabilities to deal with the waste in an environmentally friendly way. E-waste, such as computers, cannot be shipped to countries that are not in the EU or the European Free Trade Association. States and countries that are members of the EU or EFTA must conduct inspections periodically to make sure that all regulations are being followed and physically check containers to verify that the containers hold only what is authorized. Finally, if the country that is taking the waste is unable to accept or dispose of the waste then the sender must pay to take their waste back. The purpose of these changes is to make sure that incidents like the Ivory Coast doesn’t happen again..

Ship dismantling

Ship dismantling is another form of transfrontier waste that is shipped from country to country. Many ships are broken down into parts that can be recycled. Many parts of the ships are hazardous and can potentially pollute the areas that they are broken down in. The ship parts can contain asbestos

Asbestos

, PCBs, and oil sludge. All of these components can be a potential health risk and harm the environment. Most ship scrapping industries are in developing countries where the laws (environmentally as well as occupationally) are not as strict as in developed countries. International Maritime Organization

International Maritime Organization

The International Maritime Organization , formerly known as the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization , was established in Geneva in 1948, and came into force ten years later, meeting for the first time in 1959...

states that India is the leader in ship dismantling, followed by China, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
The aircraft carrier Clemenceau was denied access to Indian waters because it contained asbestos. The French aircraft was carried from France to Britain to be recycled on February 8, 2009 despite the abundance of asbestos.

The EU Commission proposed improvements to be made to improve the ship dismantling as well as the ocean dumping process on November 19, 2008. These improvements were deemed necessary after the dumping incident on Ivory Coast in 2006. One major improvement would be to provide facilities designed to break down ship parts safely for recycling mostly in regions of South Asia. The Ship Recycling Convention will not decide on the improvements until May 2009. If the new improvements for making ship dismantling safer for the areas and workers who dismantle the parts are agreed upon at the convention, it would take years before it became international law.