Brazil is returning more than 1,400 tons of imported trash back to the UK after discovering the shipments included hazerdous waste. A bunch of Brazilian waste hauling companies may be fined as well. While Brazil allows private companies to import and store trash from other counties, the country maintains strict regulations for toxic waste.
“Brazil is not a big rubbish dump of the world,”declared the head of the environmental agency.
I love it when developing countries refuse to take shit (in this case, literally) from more developed countries. In the same way Brazil has told private pharmaceutical companies where they can shove their AIDS drug patents, the environmental agency didn’t flinch before sending 65 crates of blood, syringes, condoms and food waste right back to the UK.
via The Guardian
[In solidarity with this righteous trash policy, I just booked Labor Day weekend in Rio. Ok, ok, full disclosure, my vacation planning had nothing to do with trash and everything to do with sick deals on flights to Brazil. But I’m open to garblogging tips for when I’m there. Any Brazilians in the house?]
Tags: Brazil, environmental agency, Hazerdous Waste, Toxic Waste, Trash Export, United Kingdom, Waste Export
everydaytrash 
Monday, July 20, 2009 at 10:39 am |
Good for them. I wonder when we see the day of “trash credits” akin to carbon credits. I hope not as dumping anything anywhere will just have a price associated with it and developing countries will bear the burden.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 at 4:51 pm |
[…] This just in from Brazil’s Secretariat for Social Communications (SECOM): The hazerdous waste found in Brazil and shipped back to the UK last week may have been labeled as recycling materials, though the containers turned out to hold diapers, […]