[] TL: Toxic Trade in Mediterranean Report SO: Roberto Ferrigno, Greenpeace International Waste Trade Campaigner (GP) DT: October 8, 1993 Keywords: environment greenpeace mediterranean toxics trade waste europe africa middle east / 1. INTRODUCTION At the Seventh Ordinary Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention, Cairo, October 1991, Greenpeace presented a global assessment on waste trade in the Mediterranean Region, an overview of relevant national, regional and international agreements on this subject, and a recommendation for the establishment of prevention strategies in the region. The following report is an update of that assessment. Unfortunately, over the past two years, waste traders have become increasingly active in the Mediterranean Region. Albania, Cyprus, Egypt, Lebanon and Turkey became new targets. Greenpeace witnessed and documented an increasingly amount of wastes being shipped to Mediterranean countries justified by recycling or alleged benefits to recipient countries. Shipments of deadly toxic waste to Albania were even labelled as "humanitarian aid". In 1992 over 90% of waste trade schemes targeting non-OECD countries claimed some sort of recycling, reuse or humanitarian benefit. Greenpeace discovered that, in 1992 alone, Western Europe and the U.S. shipped toxic wastes to Albania, Brazil, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Estonia, Georgia, Indonesia, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Namibia, Palau, Philippines, Romania, Slovenia, and Ukraine. This figure represents only the "first wave" of industrial waste dumping. With no coherent strategy in Western Europe to decrease the production of hazardous and municipal wastes, waste production has increased while the traditional disposal methods of landfilling and incineration are under increasing attack due to environmental concerns. The obvious result now and in the foreseeable future is a dramatic increase in export of wastes to areas of the world that have even less capability to safely manage such wastes. Of particular concern in this regard are the Eastern European and the Mediterranean regions. Not surprisingly, the Mediterranean with its numerous ports and its location in a sea-trade cross-road between North and South, East and West geo-political regions, lies at the centre of much of the international trade in hazardous wastes. Greenpeace urges the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention to adopt at their Eighth Ordinary Meeting (12-15 October 1993, Antalya, Turkey) a recommendation banning all exports of hazardous waste, including nuclear, to non OECD countries. UPDATE OF WASTE TRADE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION 1. ALBANIA 1.1 Scheme: HUMANITARIAN AID Date: 1991-1992 Type of waste: expired pesticides Quantity: about 455 tonnes Country of origin: Germany Generator: former GDR industries Exporter/broker: Landhandel Guestrow, Schmidt-Cretan, Hannover Pretext/fate: humanitarian aid for agriculture use Status: actual/stopped About 455 tonnes of expired pesticides were shied between November 1991 and April 1992 to Albania for agricultural purposes. The wastes were labelled as humanitarian aid and exported by train and boat. The recipient of the waste were the Albanian governmental companies Agroexport, and Eximagro, both based in Tirana. The toxic wastes were declared "humanitarian aid" with the collaboration staff of the Albanian embassy in Bonn. The companies involved used a document issued by the German Federal Agency for Foreign Trade (Bundesamt fuer Aussenwirtschaft) stating that the substances were not included in the list of the products banned for exports. In March 1992 the recipients asked Schmidt-Cretan to stop the deliverance of the pesticides because they found that the chemicals already exported were expired, not properly packed, and even banned. Nevertheless at least three further train shipments carrying about 175 tonnes of wastes reached Albania. The Albanian authorities returned the rail cars to Germany but the pesticides were simply repacked and sent back to Bajza, in Northern Albania. In October 1992 Greenpeace took pictures of some of the barrels in the port of Durres, and 400 more stored in a military camp in Milot, 50 Km North of Durres. On the 19 October 1992, a joint press conference was held in Brussels. Greenpeace and Albanian officials brought evidence of the waste trade scheme labelled as "humanitarian aid" just one day before the EC Environment Ministers met in Luxembourg to agree on a regulation on the shipment of wastes. According to the regulation, which will come into force in May 1994, toxic wastes can be exported for "recovery operations" as long as the country is a party to the Basel Convention or if there exists a "special agreement or arrangement" . List of type, quantity (tonnes) and storage sites of pesticides exported in Albania ______________________________________________________________ ____ SITES ______________________________________________________________ ____ TYPE Durres/Milot Bajza Others Amount ______________________________________________________________ ____ Melipax 52 14 77 143 Ditox 1 - 43 44 Trizlin 31 - 13 44 Olpisan 3 9 3 15 Malzid 21 4 - 25 Falisan 7 26 12 45 DNOC - 40 - 40 Polycarbazin - 18 - 18 Others 17 types* - 81 - 81 ______________________________________________________________ ____ TOTAL 115 192 148 455 ______________________________________________________________ ____ * Heptasol, Karbaryl, Arbitox, Dicid, Helbacin, Milbal ED, Wofalin, TMTD, MIlon EC, Selest, Zineb, Triazin, and others These pesticides are considered toxic waste in Germany, as they are expired and most of them banned. Some were banned at the end of 1992. All are considered unsafe for any sort of use. Disposal costs in Germany would be 8-11,000 DM per tonne. 1.2 Scheme: SATRA GROUP Date: 1992 Type of waste: combustible hazardous wastes Quantity: 850,000 tonnes/year Country of origin: Western Europe, USA Generator: numerous Exporter/broker: Satra Group Pretext/fate: fuel for power plant Status: apparently abandoned In May 1992 the Satra Group presented a proposal to the Albanian government entitled "A proposal to construct and operate a thermoelectric generating facility using industrial residues as alternate fuel". The project would be financed exclusively through the importation of industrial residues from Europe and the United States to be used as synthetic fuel to generate electricity. Albania would provide the land and labour and in return would receive approximately $ 500 million worth of the assets over the first five years of the operation including incineration plants worth $ 300 million, 90 $ million in hard currency from the lease, $ 28 million from sale of electricity, and $ 4 million dollars from sale of the ash. Satra Group is headquartered in the U.S. in Greenwich, CT. Through its affiliates, it operates a disparate range of businesses from marketing Coca-Cola in the C.I.S. to ferro-chrome production, to managing the Bolshoi Ballet. Satra has offices in London and Bridlington, UK, and in Moscow, Russia. According to separation papers filed by his wife in 1986, Mr. Ara Oztomel, an Armenian who grew up in Turkey, owns 78 percent of Satra. He has become extremely rich serving the former Soviet Union. He strated doing business with the Soviets in 1952. As he learned the ins and outs of the system, Oztemel branched out into selling several Soviet products: chrome, hydrofoil boats, Belarus tractors and Lada cars. In each case he received exclusive territorial rights. Today he trades $ 800 million worth of goods a year. As it would have been considered as an energy "recovery operation", the proposed hazardous waste incineration scheme would have been perfectly legal under the EC regulation on shipment of wastes and the Basel Convention as long as it received a signature from an Albanian government official. 2. EGYPT 2.1 Scheme: TAURUS Date: January-March 1992 Type of waste: heavy metals contaminated plastic shreddings from the recycling of car batteries, capacitors and transformers Quantity: 2,000 tonnes Country of origin: Germany Generator: Blei-und Silberhuette Braubach, Koblenz Exporter/broker: Taurus Umwelttechnil, Schopfeim, Germany Pretext/fate: recycling/substitute fuel Status: actual/rejected In March 1992 Egypt turned away the Danish-flagged ship Cito, which was carrying 950 tons of German toxic waste loaded in the harbour of Rotterdam. Greenpeace had asked the Dutch Ministry of Environment to inform Egyptian authorities in the port of Alexandria about the nature of the cargo. The waste consisted of lead contaminating plastic shreddings from the recycling of car batteries, capacitors and trasformers from a lead smelter known as Blei-und Silberhuette Braubach (BSB) near Koblenz, Germany. BSB is a subsidiary of Metallgesellschaft, in turn a daughter of Mercedes-Benz. The exporter/broker was Ulrich Frommherz of Taurus Umwelttechnik, Schopfeim, Germany. The recipient Egyptian company, named Free CAT and based in Holiopolis, Cairo declared that the wastes were destined to be hand-sorted and then "recycled" as substitute fuel in a cement kiln near Alexandria. Given the high levels of contaminants, such incineration is highly polluting and without very sophisticated pollution control devices would be illegal in Europe. In Germany, disposal of this type of waste would cost a minimum of 750 DM per tonne ($ 450), whereas the broker in this case was paid 550 DM ($ 330) to receive these wastes. Mr. Frommerherz also persuaded BSB by informing them that Taurus had 20,000 tonnes of transport capacity to Egypt in 1992. After a return voyage and 50 days at sea the Cito was again refused port entry, this time in Emdem, Germany. The local authorities claimed that the port had no facilities for hazardous waste and therefore would not allow it in. But the exhausted crew of the ship was out of food and water and insisted on coming into port under escort by the Greenpeace vessel Solo. After a dramatic closing of the locks in front of the Solo and Cito, the German authorities relented and finally allowed the Cito to dock. For many weeks the ship remained as Metallgesellschaft refused to take responsibility for the return of the waste. Finally in late May 1992, a decision was taken to store the waste in a monitored salt dome storage, the most expensive waste disposal facility in Germany. According to the Egyptian press, the Cito had unloaded 1,168 tonnes of the same wastes in January 1992. The wastes were stored in a warehouse near Alexandria. Their fate is unknown. The Cito deal was brokered by Ulrich Frommherz of Taurus Umwelttechnik in Schopfheim near the Swiss border. Greenpeace files on Frommherz reveal that in his past company known as Frobelit he was involved in several waste trade scheme to South Africa, Argentina, Paraguay, Guyana, El Salvador, and Venezuela. Mr. Frommherz was collaborating with infamous Italian waste trader Gianfranco Ambrosini who sent wastes to Djibouti and Venezuela in 1988. He organise the dumping of toxic Aluminium waste on the edge of a Norwegian fjord in 1991, and developed a dump project in a desert area of the province of Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Frommherz was imprisoned in mid-October 1992 for failing to pay 1.1 million DM (about $ 660,000) in federal taxes. The Taurus company then was dissolved and allegedly reestablished in Switzerland under another name. 3. LEBANON Scheme: ORIENT GmbH Date: July 1993 Type of waste: used paints, solvents Quantity: 70 barrels/50 litres each Country of origin: Germany Generator: Regro GmbH, Berlin Exporter/broker: Mr. Abdallah, Berlin; Orient Schiffahrts und Speditions GmbH, Hamburg Status: actual Regro GmbH gave the barrels to Mr. Abdallah for free. Orient Shipping Company sent them to Beirut in a 40" container with the MV Waalhaven. The recipient company was C & F, Beirut. 3.2 Scheme: SEWAGE SLUDGE Date: 1991 Type of Waste: sewage sludge Quantity: 100,000 tonnes Country of Origin: Austria Generator: unknown Exporter/broker: KSK Trading Enterprises Pretext/fate: use as fertilizer Status: abandoned The Austrian company KSK Trading Enterprises intended to ship 100,000 tonnes of sewage sludge to the Bekaa plain in Lebanon. The company got a certificate from the University of Agricultural Science (Hochschule fuer Bodenkultur) in Vienna which guaranteed that the material was harmless. After the Austrian Ministry of Environment had permitted the export the case came to the public and finally the permission was withdrawn "for political reasons". 4. RUSSIA 4.1 Scheme: MERCURY WASTE Date: June 1993 Type of waste: mercury contaminated waste Quantity: 40 tonnes (?) Country of origin: Spain Generator: Minas de Almaden y Arrayanes Exporter/broker: Hidronor Pretext/fate: recycling Status: unknown Over the past decade, about 12,000 tonnes of mercury contaminated waste generated by at least 25 industries located in several European countries and Australia were dumped in Spain, District of Almaden, by the state run company Minas de Almaden y Arrayanes. The company offered to recycle mercury waste of various generators in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Nederlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. In June 1990 Greenpeace discovered 2,200 tonnes of wastes contained in rusty, badly damaged and leaking barrels stored in an open-air site. The wastes were shipped to Almaden under the pretext of recycling. However, several attempts to build and operate a mercury-recycling facility culminated in explosions and health problems in workers. In April 1988 the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the National Scientific Research Institute, said that" ...the mercury wastes treatment plant does not permit the treatment of any type of waste that is found in Almaden at the present..." In February 1991 the Spanish government ordered most of the wastes to be finally buried in a landfill constructed in an area designated as an important area for birds by the European Community. In June 1993 Greenpeace Russia discovered that Minas De Almaden y Arrayanes proposed a deal to the Russian company Molibden based in Abinsk, Krasnodar region, on the Black Sea shores. Also in this case, the mercury contaminated wastes are claimed to be exported for recycling. 5. TURKEY 5.1 Scheme: HELTERMAA Date: April-May 1992 Type of waste: toxic filter dusts from steel production Quantity: 3,564 tonnes Country of origin: Germany Generator: Hamburg Steelworks Exporter/broker: Eurocat of Wilfried Stork, Duisburg, Germany Pretext/fate: recycling Status: rejected On 23 April 1992 the Estonian-flagged ship Heltermaa left Germany for the Turkish port of Mersin despite pleading from the Turkish Minister of Environment, Mr. Dogancan Akyurek, to German Minister of Environment, Mr. Klaus Toepfer to block the shipment. Despite the fact that Turkey has a provisional law forbidding the import of hazardous wastes, local officials in Hamburg allowed the vessel to leave the port for according to the German law, toxic waste are allowed to be exported if they are claimed to be bound for recycling operation. The shipment closely followed the waste shipping scandal of the Danish vessel Cito loaded with 950 tonnes of German toxic waste and rejected by Egyptian authorities. The waste broker, Mr. Wilfried Stork, was previously involved in a company known as HTA, which, in the past years left over 9,000 tonnes of the same type of waste in Dutch and Polish ports, after refusing to take the waste back following illegal shipments to Poland. Upon arrival, the Heltermaa was immediately refused entry by Turkish authorities. After been similarly refused entry by port authorities in Cyprus, the ship headed towards the Black Sea but Greenpeace warned all the countries of the region, and the cargo was refused entry to Ukraine, Georgia, Rumania and Bulgaria. Finally, on 14 August 1992 the Heltermaa returned its toxic cargo to the generator, Hamburg Steelworks. 5.2 Scheme: SS UNITED STATES Date: July 1992 Type of waste: asbestos Quantity: 300,000 square meters Country of origin: United States Generator: U.S. Federal Government Exporter/broker: Marmara Marine Inc, Delaware, United States Pretext/fate: refurbishing Status: active After it lay unused in Richmond, Virginia for over two decades, the U.S.-flagged luxury passenger ship SS United States was bought in April 1992 by Marmara Marine Inc. for $ 2.6 million, and sent to Turkey for asbestos removal and refurbishing. The U.S. government paid over half of its original cost of about $ 80 million. Engineers commissioned by the U.S. government designed the ship so it could be readily converted as a troop carrier in case of war. An emphasis on non combustible lightweight materials lead to heavy use of asbestos in the doors, walls, ceilings and floors, ventilator ducts and linings, structural supports, panelling, and even chairs and blankets. The ship has almost 300,000 sq.meters of Marinite onboard, more than any other ship in history. In July 1992 Marmara Marine had the SS United States towed from the U.S. to the Tuzla shipyard in Istanbul in order to remove the asbestos and refurbishing the ship. According to the managers of Marmara Marine Inc. the renovations done in Turkey would cost half what they would cost in Western Europe. When asked about his intentions for disposal of the asbestos from the ship, the owner of the shipyard, Mr. Kahraman Sadikoglu said that he would dig a hole somewhere and just bury it. He added that if he was not assigned any government land to carry out this operation he would buy some land and do it there. Workers cleaning up the ship informed Greenpeace that they were took onboard the SS United States without any information about the dangers of asbestos or protective clothing. They were paid a bit more than usual. The average wage of Turkish dockworkers is $ 2.00 per day. The average wage of US asbestos workers is $ 10-30 per hour. Cunard Line Ltd, London, UK, and Effjohn International, Amsterdam, Nederlands, two of the world~ major luxury passenger cruise lines, are involved in the pending refurbishment of the SS United States. Greenpeace addressed both companies with its concerns about the asbestos on board the vessel. Cunard confirmed that its role would be to manage the hotel functions on board if the ship returns to service. Effjohn, which reportedly will manage the renovation of the ship, declined to respond. Asbestos is one of the most carcinogenic substances known to science. Professor Irving Selikoff, of the Mount Sinai hospital in New York, estimates that in the U.S. alone over 400,000 people will die in the next 20 years from asbestos-related disease. Asbestos may cause up to 17% of all cancers in the U.S. According to the press, the Turkish government is now considering of a $ 273 million special loan for Goktrane Turzin ve Ticarte A.S., the owner of the Tuzla shipyard, under an investment program established to stimulate the national economy. Unfortunately, it has not uttered a single word about the major problem with the ship - the huge amount of asbestos on it. In February 1993, Mr. Dogancan Akyurek, the then Turkish Minister of Environment told the Turkish Anatolian press agency that he would not allow workers to unload asbestos from the ship in Turkey. This decision has not been revoked. Under current circumstances the removal and disposal of massive quantities of asbestos waste represents a mortal threat to the Turkish workers and environment. But the SS United States presents an acute danger to the health of the workers on board, and a potential danger to the environment and public health not only in Turkey but wherever the ship may go. 5.3 Scheme: HERMES-INERTECO Date: 1992/1993 Type of waste: acrilonytrile, solvents and other mixtures from textile production Quantity: 544 tonnes Country of origin: Greece Generator: Vomvicryl Exporter/broker: Hermes-Inerteco, a Greek-Italian consortium Pretext/fate: reuse as raw material, in fact: incineration Status: active The waste were stored over the past 4 years at Vomvicryl site, since the plant was shut-down in 1989 for economic reasons. The Greek government took over the factory through the Greek National Bank. As a part of a general cleaning-up of the dismissed industrial area, different projects were evaluated in order to dispose of the waste. One of them contemplated the shipment of waste at Rechem incinerator in Fawley, Southampton, UK. But given the high cost it was eventually turned down. In November 1992 however Turkish press reported that the then Turkish minister of environment, Mr. Dogancan Akyurek, rejected a first attempt to export Vomvicryl waste to his country by saying that it was "a second Heltermaa case". A Greek-Italian consortium, Hermes-Inerteco, formed by two former employees from Vomvicryl and the Italian company Inerteco, eventually brokered an agreement with the Greek government to find the way to remove the waste from their generation site. They proposed to ship them to Yalova Elyaf San.Tic, a Turkish chemical plant, for "recycling". To this end, Inerteco showed up bulk analysis of the materials carried out by an Italian laboratory, Oxalis S.n.c.. Greenpeace asked the Earth Resource Centre, University of Exeter, UK, to have a look to these analysis. According to Dr. P.A. Johnston, the results indicate that the materials are highly impure mixtures of compounds from the manufacture of acrylic fibres. This means that they would not be suitable for use without purification and redistillation to remove water and other contaminants. They cannot therefore be regarded as raw materials suitable for manufacturing processes. In July 1993, however, the new Turkish minister of environment, Mr. Riza Akcali, allowed a first import of 222 tonnes of waste. It is interesting to note that Inerteco is not officially registered in Italy. His representative in this deal, Dr. Emilio Oldani,only results as Chief Executive of a real estate company, Borsa Immobiliare Lombarda srl, based in Milano, Italy. A second shipment with the remaining 328 tonnes of waste is expected to leave Greece in the near future. ---------