Global Waste Trade: Global Injustice
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JUNE 2024
In this article, ExpertX aims to shine a stark light on the profound injustice of free trade, the grim underside of globalisation, and how countries like India are unfairly burdened by it.
Thus, the concept of global waste trade unfolds as a stark imbalance between the affluent global north, comprising Europe, the US, Canada, and others, and the impoverished global south, encompassing Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia, highlighting the global impact of this issue.
It is crucial to refer to an incident to set the context. In August 1986, a cargo ship called Qian Xi was loaded with some 14,000 tons of ash from an incinerator based in Philadelphia, United States.
This ship was supposed to dump the ash in another US city, New Jersey, but it was then refused entry to the port.
This ship, laden with toxic waste, embarked on a desperate 16-month journey, scouring the Atlantic for a place to unload its cargo.
It visited Honduras, Panama, Bermuda, and the Dominican Republic, only to be turned away. The crew’s attempts to unload in Senegal, Morocco, Yugoslavia, Sri Lanka, and Singapore were also in vain.
Undeterred, the ship attempted to alter its identity, changing its name twice in different locations, but its original identity could not be concealed.
Finally, after exhausting all the options and being refused in its own country, as the case goes, the ship dumped its toxic waste somewhere in the Atlantic.
It is a classic case where developed countries want to dump their toxic waste in a poor country.
For the first time in 1992, a word called “toxic colonisation” was coined by an activist named Jim Phuket.
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It is a classic case where developed countries want to dump their toxic waste in a poor country
Toxic colonisation is about dumping of industrial waste of the West on the territories of third-world countries like India, Vietnam, African countries and so on, and this is a well-established practice.
Initially, it was informal; now, it forms part of a good trade deal.
Why do the countries allow it? The affected communities allow this to happen because they lack resources and knowledge, and the political organisation does not have the will, among other reasons. Notably, the money that they are getting is very good for the country’s population.
Accordingly, a cost-benefit is attached to the global waste trade.
This means that while developed countries benefit economically from exporting their waste, the costs are borne by the receiving countries in the form of environmental degradation, health hazards, and social injustice.
A study presented at the Geneva Convention of 2010, as part of a PhD research, revealed that the continued dumping of toxic and
radioactive waste in Somalia has had a devastating impact on the population, leading to a surge in diseases such as cancer, spontaneous miscarriages, and child malformations.
During this period, many organizations, including non-governmental organizations, started to raise awareness and fight against this malpractice in the name of globalization.
One of them is the Basel Action Network (BAN), an international non-profit organization that works to prevent the globalization of the toxic chemical crisis.
BAN’s focus on the impact of global environmental injustices and the economic inefficiency of toxic trade gives hope for potential solutions.
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Initially, it was informal; now, it forms part of a good trade deal
It focuses on the impact of global environmental injustices and the economic inefficiency of toxic trade.
Another prominent example is ship scrapping industries, which are primarily done in developing countries.
This is done because these countries do not have strong environmentally friendly occupational laws. Unsurprisingly, India is the leader in ship dismantling, followed by China, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
In an infamous case, a French aircraft carrier was coming to India for shipbreaking in 2009, but the government did not allow it because it contained asbestos.
A lot of international diplomacy happened, but finally, India could resist, and the ship wasn’t allowed.
Where it went subsequently, we do not know.
This raises the question of the ethics behind the global waste trade and the dumping of toxic materials in developing countries. Where does this thinking originate?
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Another prominent example is ship scrapping industries, which are primarily done in developing countries
Is it a case of ignorance or a well-thought-out strategy hidden in the practice of globalization?
So, this question needs to be inquired about.
It is found that there is a person named Lawrence Summers, Larry Summers, as we know him.
He was a former president of Harvard University, the treasury secretary of Bill Clinton, the then-president of the USA, and the chief economist of the World Trade Organization.
In 1991, he argued in favour of global waste trade in his leaked confidential memo. According to him, the World Bank should encourage more migration of dirty industries to the least developed countries.
It is essential to understand the idea of a poor global south, which consists of countries like India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and others, as well as African countries, to be used for dumping waste from developed countries.
It is worth perplexing whether these glossy management practices come from the world’s top universities; is this selfish thought also exported to the students as part of their fancy education?
It is compelling to think that if there are tax havens like the Cayman Islands or the British Virgin Islands, is India a pollution haven of the world, and like India, are there more countries like Ghana and the African countries?
Are these countries of the Global South also being treated as pollution havens for recycling the toxic industrial waste of the Global North, which is the rich Global North countries?
Here are some more examples of how India is a pollution haven.
More than 25 countries have dumped 1,21,000 metric tons of plastic waste in India in the name of recycling them.
According to a PTI report of 2019, and more shocking is to know that of 1,21,000 metric tons, 55,000 metric tons of this plastic waste plastic has been imported from Pakistan and Bangladesh.
In another Bloomberg report from December 2022, plastic wrappers, cardboard waste, and envelope waste from Amazon ended up in illegal dump sites and industrial furnaces in Muzaffarnagar, India.
In a way, the toxins from the waste burning of the wrappers of Amazon corporation from America have ended in the lungs of the people of Muzaffarnagar.
Whatever happens to the Amazon envelopes, they are not entirely paper or cardboard. They also contain parts of plastic.
Further, the amount of plastic contamination in those wrappers is allowed to be about two per cent, but it can go up to five per cent.
According to that accounting, India will likely have five lakh tons of plastic waste hidden in those paper shipments in the last two years alone.
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Here are some more examples of how India is a pollution haven
Another example is that in 2021, India allowed the import of plastic water bottles from the US, Canada, and Germany, equating to about 90,000 tons of waste plastic bottles.
These are just a few examples of branding India as a pollution haven or an industrial waste haven for the world.
According to a Guardian article from 2019, thousands of tons of used tyres from Britain come to India every month, where they are put into pyrolysis plants to make industrial fuel.
Although burning these tyres is under some regulation, it releases toxins into the air, including heavy metals, benzene, dioxins, and other carcinogenic chemicals.
The big question to ask India is, why can't Britain do it in its own country?
Why do Amazon envelopes have to land in India but not get recycled in America?
Is India a dumping ground for industrial waste?
Why is the Indian government active in this global waste trade?
What is it doing to the lives of we Indians, and is it justified?
Why are Indians allowing themselves to be victims of global environmental injustice?
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