Greenpeace campaigns against toxic incinerators
SPAIN — Four Greenpeace activists blocked the chimney of a toxic waste incinerator in Martorell, Barcelona on August 8 to protest plans by Solvay, a Belgian chemical company, to burn toxic industrial waste containing chlorine.
The activists scaled the 30 foot-high chimney and covered it with a huge cap of canvas. They also unfurled a banner pointing out the hazards from dioxin, a byproduct of incinerated chlorine-based chemicals and one of the most toxic of all known chemicals. The action, part of a campaign aimed at convincing Solvay and other organochlorine producers to stop producing chlorinated products, coincides with the visit to Barcelona of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior, which is on a 4-month tour to protect the Mediterranean environment.
Solvay is Europe's largest chlorine producer and second largest producer of chlorinated plastics (PVC). It intends to build the incinerator in north eastern Spain to burn wastes created in the production of PVC commonly used in packaging and construction.
Dioxin is only one of a range of toxic organochlorines that are produced and dumped into the environment by Solvay and the chlorine industry.
Chlorine has been used to create more than 11,000 organochlorines. Some are manufactured for industrial use while others are created as the by-products of industrial processes involving chlorine. Organochlorine has been used as pesticides, solvents, coolants and in plastics — DDT, PCBs, CFC and PVC plastic are all organochlorines.
The chemicals are highly toxic and persistent and most build up in the fatty tissue of exposed animals. Organochlorines are suspected of causing various types of cancers, reproductive failure, developmental disorders even infertility and reduced sperm count. They can also disrupt the immune system and damage the liver and kidneys.
Solvay is actively producing and dumping these chemicals around the world. Besides being Europe's leading producer of chlorine, Solvay is the world's 18th largest chemical company with 440 establishments in 37 countries.
The company's environmental record often contradicts its management's pledges to safeguard the environment. For example, its Dutch subsidiary, Solvay-Duphar, illegally dumped toxic wastes in the Netherlands. Solvay has been linked to mercury pollution in Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Brazil. This past April, Solvay's UK subsidiary was fined £12,000 for illegally polluting the river Mersey.
Environmental concern over the risks of organochlorines has forced the demand for chlorine products to plunge. In Germany, for example, despite reunification, PVC use dropped 11% in 1991 as dozens of towns became PVC-free cities. In the Netherlands a major grocery chained dropped PVC packaging prompting a 90% plunge in PVC packaging. PVC bottles since 1991 and the Belgian government is currently considering the phase out of PVC packaging. International companies such as the Body Shop International and Ikea have declared their intention to go PVC free.
Many other organochlorines are also coming under fire. Ozone destroying CFC's are targeted for phase-out and environmentally safe alternatives to chlorine bleaching in the paper industry are spreading. Safe alternatives exist for every sector of chlorine use — alternatives that would make the incinerator at Martorell completely unnecessary.
[From Greenpeace, via Pegasus.]