Another Victory Against Formosa Plastics' Toxic Dumping Plan!

A Note from Greenaction

Under pressure from environmental and labor groups in the United States and groups in Taiwan, Formosa Plastics has agreed to at least temporarily store their controversial toxic waste on their company's site in Taiwan. Longshore workers in the U.S. recently announced they would refuse to handle the toxic shipment if it arrived here.

Groups in the U.S. and Taiwan had united to demand that no community have this toxic poison dumped on them, and have demanded that Formosa Plastics take responsibility to store their own waste on company property. Greenaction will continue to work with our allies in the U.S. and Taiwan to protect all of our communities from this toxic threat. While we celebrate this victory, we will remain vigilant.

See Also:

Greenaction Blows the Whistle About Plans to Import Mercury Waste from Taiwan and Dump It in Beatty, Nevada. Check out the front page story in the May 8, 1999 Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Greenaction Report From The Front Lines: Little Westmorland Fights Back Against Toxic Polluters

Huge Victory For Environmental Justice! Mercury Waste From Taiwan Dumped in Cambodia Will Not Be Re-Dumped in Westmorland, CA! Press Coverage: BBC News Los Angeles Times San Jose Mercury News

Greenaction Supports Taiwan Communities in Anti-toxics Struggle! See press release of Taiwan Environmental Action Network

For more information, contact:

Bradley Angel Greenaction

(415) 248-5010

Taiwan to Bury Mercury-Laced Waste At Home!

Read the Story From
Reuters Wire Service

TAIPEI, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Taiwan has found a temporary home for some 3,000 tonnes of mercury-laced industrial waste rejected by Cambodia and the United States -- on the property of the company that produced it, Formosa Plastics.

Taiwan's Environmental Protection Administration said on Thursday would allow Formosa Plastics to temporarily bury the waste domestically if it could not find overseas disposal sites.

"We agreed in principle to allow Formosa Plastics to temporarily handle the waste disposal domestically,'' the administration said in a statement.

The administration said Formosa had applied to move the waste to its Mailiao petrochemical complex in southwestern Taiwan for temporary disposal.

The petrochemicals company had originally dumped the waste on open ground outside the southern Cambodian port city of Sihanoukville in late 1998, and its discovery in December sparked an panicked exodus in which several people died.

Formosa initially said the concrete-like rubble was safe for landfill disposal, but later acknowledged that some of it might slightly exceed safety standards. Tests showed that much of the waste contained high levels of mercury.

Formosa took back the waste, keeping it at a pier in southern Taiwan, trying to ship it to the United States, but the plan fell through after environmentalists persuaded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to revoke a dumping permit.