How did massive quantities of toxic waste arrive at an Indonesian port?

Chris Evans
Online Editor at Link2
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Post date: Wednesday, 8th February 2012

At the end of January, 113 containers of toxic waste were intercepted by officials at Jakarta Tanjung Priok Port. But how did they get there in the first place and, maybe even more critically, how many more are going through unnoticed?

Environmental groups have obviously condemned the illegal shipments, which originated from the UK and the Netherlands, and urged world governments that have not already done so to ratify the Basel Ban Amendment and to enforce the Basel Convention as soon as possible.

Last October, the Basel Convention on the Control of the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal passed a critical decision to ensure that only 17 more ratifications are needed to allow the Basel Ban Amendment to enter into force, which will then make it a crime to export toxic wastes from developed to developing countries - for any reason whatsoever.

Following the discovery of a hazardous cocktail of waste at the Jakarta port, a lobbying group led by Indonesia Toxics-Free Network, the Basel Action Network, Ban Toxics, and BaliFokus has stepped up its campaign for a crackdown on global dumping.

According to Basel Action Network, toxic waste is being driven from rich to poorer countries by increasing toxic waste generation in developed countries, increasing costs of managing pollutants, combined with high poverty and lax implementation of environmental laws. As a result, the enforcement of the Basel Convention is seen as a matter of urgency.

Yuyun Ismawati, founder of the Indonesia Toxics-Free Network, said: “In Indonesia we have regulations on illegal toxic waste traffic based on the Basel Convention, but there needs to be better national enforcement and international cooperation to implement the law.”

Jim Puckett, executive director of the Basel Action Network, has also called for greater international cooperation, starting with ratification of the Basel Ban. He says it places the responsibility of policing this crime not only on the importing country, such as Indonesia, but more importantly on the developed nations as well.

He added: “The UK and Dutch port authorities missed this shipment, and thus it is clear that there needs to be greater responsibility on the shoulders of exporting countries to police unscrupulous actors that avoid costs of proper waste management by exporting toxic waste."

It has been decided that the Ban Amendment will go into force when 68 of the 90 countries that were parties to the convention in 1995, ratify the agreement.

It is expected that it will take two to three years for the remaining 17 ratifications, only then will the Ban Amendment be able to ensure that developing countries are not seen as convenient dumping grounds for toxic factory waste, obsolete ships containing asbestos, or old computers coming from affluent countries.

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