Chinese Internet users are calling for government action to shut
the door to foreign toxic wastes, after television reports revealed
how customs and environment authorities were failing to stop
imports of hazardous garbage.
A netizen named Fruitful Autumn said the public was infuriated
by the fact toxic wastes were allowed into their country.
Other online commentators said the authorities should
effectively enforce the laws against imports of toxic wastes,
insisting that China should not become a victim of imported
hazardous materials.
A report by China Central Television (CCTV) came after Britain's
Sky News aired a program titled "Are you poisoning China?",
revealing how plastic wastes produced by British households ended
up in Lianjiao, a small town near Guangzhou, capital of south
China's Guangdong Province.
The footage showed Chinese workers amid mountainous piles of
plastic shopping bags and choking on toxic smoke from burnt
plastics. It also pictured nearby rivers blackened by chemical
wastes from incineration.
"The bags should have been classified before being imported, but
they were not. Some are non-degradable and contain hazardous
substances," said Yang Sujuan, deputy director of the Research
Institute on Environmental Law in China University of Political
Science and Law.
Yang said importing hazardous wastes was a blatant violation of
the national law on environment protection, and the local customs
had apparently failed to curb the profitable trade in smuggled
waste.
"A lot of waste is dumped and burned at open air sites, when it
should have been delivered to qualified processing factories and
supervised by local environment authorities," said Yang.
"The incineration will produce dioxins, highly-toxic and
carcinogenic substances that will harm not only the workers, but
also local people," said Mao Da, a member of Global Village of
China, a Beijing-based non-government-organization as saying, in
the CCTV program.
Mao said both importers and exporters had violated the Basel
Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and
Their Disposal, to which China is a signatory.
He said local environment authorities should order immediate
proper disposal of the imported waste.
The report sparked protests and calls for official action from
many Internet users, who said they were infuriated by the fact that
Maersk Lines shipped China-made Christmas presents to Europe, but
toxic wastes back to China.
Developing nations have been destinations of potentially deadly
materials from rich countries, which export waste to save the costs
of recycling and landfills.
China alone has taken thousands of tons of transboundary
hazardous wastes, including waste liquid from the Republic of
Korea, used plastic bags from Germany and used batteries from the
Netherlands, according to the report.
A lot of the waste usually ended up rotting in rubbish tips,
releasing lead, cadmium, mercury and other deadly compounds, said
Wu Aiping, an expert with the State Environmental Protection
Administration in an earlier report
(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2007)
