ABSTRACT
Industrialized countries produce over 300 million tonnes of hazardous waste each year. These wastes pose a threat to human and animal health and any number of towns and ecosystems around the world have been poisoned by improper disposal of toxins. The dilemma of toxic waste is that there is really no ‘proper’ or safe way to dispose of it; if dumped in landfills or storage pits, poisons almost inevitably leak out into drinking water and residential areas; if burned, it leaves toxic residue; if dumped at sea (now banned by most countries), it threatens marine mammal and fish life. In lieu of solving the waste problem, many governments and private firms have chosen simply to ship the problem away-out of sight, out of mind. Poor countries are targeted to be recipients of the rich world’s industrial waste-they need the revenue that dumping contracts can provide, and they often do not have the resources independently to assess the potential health and pollution effects of the waste they accept.
