POPs IN AFRICA HAZARDOUS WASTE TRADE 1980 - 2000 ... - Arte

Tests run on the wastes determined that they were hazardous. In a
report released August 1, Professor Ernest Wright, head of the
chemistry department at the University of Sierra Leone, revealed
that the wastes contained toxic wastes including ammonia,
formaldehyde and carbon monoxide. Wright added that the
wastes had been leaking into a nearby estuary.
Sierra Leone’s Health Minister, Wiltshire Johnson, said, “people
living around the site were contaminated with certain vapors
which caused a fair amount of choking.” 185
Scheme: Biskupek
Date: 1987/90
Type of Waste: Aluminium Salt Slags
Origin: Hanover, Germany
Exporter: Biskupek Aluminium-Schmelzwerk und Metallhandel,
Hanover
Pretext/Fate: Dumping
Status: Rejected
The Biskupek Aluminium-Schmelzwerk und Metallhandel
(Aluminium Smelters and Metals Trade), based in Hanover,
Germany, applied to German authorities in 1987 to be allowed to
export 2.500 tonnes of aluminium salt slags to Sierra Leone. The
slags are a by-product of aluminium recycling which emit toxic
gases in contact with water or high humidity e.g. hydrogen
sulphide, H2S.
The application was rejected by the German authorities. 186
Scheme: Madiva
Date: 1990
Type of Waste: Solid Municipal Waste
Origin: USA, East Coast
Exporter: US Communities / MADIVA TRUST Reg.
Pretext: Waste to Energy
Status: Proposed
Greenpeace is in possession of an elaborated feasibility study of
one “Madiva Trust Reg.” (French language). 3 million tonnes
per year of solid waste were to be incinerated after generating
biogas from them. The residues after incineration were to be
used in road construction.
Besides Sierra Leone other countries were interested in importing
wastes from the United States, among them Gambia, Poland, the
Philippines and one more unnamed country in Western Europe.
As part of the scheme, also the “American disposal company
185African Concord, July 26, 1988; Agence France Presse via BBC Monitoring Service, August 3, 1988; Reuters News Reports, July 9,10,12, 1988, August 2, 1988; West Africa,
July 11, 1988.
186 Documents on file with Greenpeace Germany
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