Update 12:23 Geneva, Switzerland and Brazil (GenevaLunch) – Brazil is being widely reported as saying it will lodge a complaint with the Geneva-based World Trade Organization over illegal waste shipments from Britain, the government announced Friday 24 July.
A large number of containers (Ed. note: reports vary from 41 to 99) of possibly toxic waste that were shipped from Britain to Brazil have been at the centre of heated debate and diplomatic discussions since the waste was discovered in mid-July in Brazil. Three men have been arrested in Swindon, Wiltshire, UK while officials investigate if they used loopholes in the law to mix household and clinical waste illegally.
The Times, UK, reports that “The Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Resources (Ibama) said that the waste included syringes, bags of blood, condoms, nappies and used bandages. The shipping manifest stated that the contents were recyclable plastic.” Shipping waste is subject to the Basel Convention and, according to Reuters, Brazil’s plans to return to England the rotting piles of some 1,600 tons of garbage could run into problems.
Related, Guardian, UK
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News story, GenevaLunch, 24 July 2009.
Filed under: International organizations
Tags: arrests, Brazil, clinical, garbage, household, rubbish, three men, toxic waste, UK, Wiltshire