Book Reviews
Recent reviews from Slashdot readers:
- Advanced Excel for Scientific Data Analysis Learn to turn Excel into something that rivals Mathematica using VBA, brains, and a heaping helping of fortitude.(Jack Herrington's review.)
- Nagios 3 Enterprise Network Monitoring A great book for anyone using Nagios as more than a casual user.(jgoguen's review.)
- Schneier on Security Schneier argues that security is not something you can buy; it is something you must get.(Ben Rothke's review.)
Submitting a review for consideration is easy; please first read Slashdot's book review guidelines. Updated: 2008114 by samzenpus
5247277
story
Comments: 110 +- News: Brazil Demands Repatriation of UK Hazardous Waste on Saturday July 18 2009, @04:07PM
Posted
by
kdawson
on Saturday July 18 2009, @04:07PM
from the got-enough-of-our-own-thanks dept.
from the got-enough-of-our-own-thanks dept.
background: url(//a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topicearth.gif); width:77px; height:80px;
earth
background: url(//a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topicbusiness.gif); width:64px; height:54px;
business
Peace Corps Online writes "BBC reports that Brazilian authorities are demanding the return of more than 1,400 tons of hazardous British waste found in about 90 shipping containers on three Brazilian docks. The waste, which includes syringes, condoms, and bags of blood, has been identified as being of UK origin from the names of British supermarkets and newspapers among the rubbish. Reports in the UK media say the waste was sent from Felixstowe in eastern England to the port of Santos, near Sao Paulo, and two other ports in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. The British government has launched an investigation into how and why the waste was sent to Brazil and the British Embassy in Brazil has said in a statement that it was investigating and would 'not hesitate to act' if it was found that a UK company had violated the Basel Convention on the movement of hazardous waste. Meanwhile Brazil is demanding the immediate return of the rubbish to the UK. 'We will ask for the repatriation of this garbage,' says Roberto Messias, head of the Brazilian environment agency. 'Clearly, Brazil is not a big rubbish dump of the world.'" Two UK companies named by Brazil as suspected exporters of the waste are owned by a Brazilian, based in the UK, who says that anything that was in the containers other than the expected recyclable plastic is a problem to take up with his suppliers.
Related Stories
No man in the world has more courage than the man who can stop after
eating one peanut.
-- Channing Pollock
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2010 Geeknet, Inc.
Why is this on Slashdot ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is this on Slashdot ?
Re:Why is this on Slashdot ? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is nothing but a pitiful attempt to flamebait the British, the Brazilian and the peanut gallery over here for more ad clicks.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
But that would mean it was actually observing something USEFUL. The odds of that are staggeringly low.
Re: (Score:2)
What, you don't think boats use technology?
'Technology' is more than 'computers', you know. Or, I guess, you don't.
Re: (Score:2)
Huh? I read US or Canada based fuckups all the time here. Some little variety won't hurt!
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Because despite what you may think, it *is* "stuff that matters" (and by that I mean how big companies/governement - for now there's still a difference - are handling waste).
Re: (Score:2)
Is there any other kind of government besides big government?
What a surprise that it's posted by kdawson. I wish you could filter slashdot by admin who posted.
Re:Why is this on Slashdot ? (Score:4, Funny)
Like clockwork.
Parent
The SWISS way (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This "news" has diddly fucking squat to do with technology, and as this is a technology site, it doesn't belong here. Doesn't matter if you consider yourself a nerd and this is news to you, cuz guess what, the vast majority of useless mainstream entertainment news would most likely be news to you and it still wouldn't belong on Slashdot.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Because it's a slow news day?
"News for nerds" my ass...
Re:Why is this on Slashdot ? (Score:5, Funny)
Garbage in Garbage out maybe?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_In,_Garbage_Out [wikipedia.org]
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Oh stop complaining, what the hell else are you going to do?
Go outside and get some exercise?
Wow. Truth really IS so much stranger than fiction (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Wow. Truth really IS so much stranger than fict (Score:5, Funny)
This is why we should make a giant ball of garbage and shoot it into space!
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
It's happened before in real life (Score:5, Informative)
The Mobro 4000 was a garbage barge that had to cruise back and forth [wikipedia.org] between the U.S. and Central America back in the '80s.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
So just torpedo the fucking thing.
riiiiight.... (Score:5, Insightful)
who says that anything that was in the containers other than the expected recyclable plastic is a problem to take up with his suppliers.
Did he ship it? Did his company sign the manifests and declarations? Did his company pay the mooring fees? Sorry, that's the cost of doing business. It's his problem.
"I didn't know what was in the bag" doesn't work for smugglers.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
No, it really is a problem for his suppliers. I brought the site I work on into compliance with EU waste regulations and one of the principles is that waste remains the responsibility of the producer. If the Waste Transfer Notes for the shipments said the containers were full of recyclable plastic then the person who shipped the waste in good faith isn't liable.
Given the volume of waste involved then this looks like a screw-up at a waste management company somewhere. Quite how they could've mixed up plastic
Could be worse. (Score:5, Funny)
I hear that the Port of Buenos Aires was sent 31 shipping containers of British food.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Could be worse. (Score:5, Funny)
Yes. Although they sometimes call it pudding.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Could be worse. (Score:5, Funny)
Reminds me of the old saw:
Heaven - Where the police are British, the lovers Italian, the chefs French, the cars German, all organized by the Swiss.
Hell - Where the police are German, the lovers Swiss, the chefs British, the cars French, all organized by the Italians.
Parent
Re:Could be worse. lovers (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Considering how publicized any single missdeed the British police does and how many restrictive controls are in place to prevent abuse. It is my opinion that due to the organisational structure and public participation, that the British police are still one of the best police forces in the world.
Re: (Score:2)
You're wrong. The cops who murdered that Brazilian electrician on the tube because they mistakenly assumed he was a terrorist got away scot free. There was also that killing during the G20 protests about which little will be done.
The police in this country are largely unaccountable.
Re: (Score:2)
"Brits eat waste?"
It was full of McDonalds, Burger King, KFC and Pizza Hut then. ;)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Poster was talking about British food. Not International-Food-that-happens-to-be-findable-in-Britain. Curry is no more British than Crepes.
Re: (Score:2)
Poster was talking about British food. Not International-Food-that-happens-to-be-findable-in-Britain. Curry is no more British than Crepes.
Au contraire, curry is very British, particularly if you had family who left India in '48 like me.
Re: (Score:2)
Poster was talking about British food. Not International-Food-that-happens-to-be-findable-in-Britain. Curry is no more British than Crepes.
He did not say Curry, he said "Curry Sauce", there is a difference. Curry sauce is about as related to curry is as McDonalds is to Rump steak. They might have some similar ingredients but the similarity ends there. It is certainly not an Indian creation since they have better taste.
Both curry sauce and mushy pease are strange liquids that us Brits pour over chips (thick cut French Fries but made from real potato, not reformed mash). Curry Sauce is this strange muddy brown liquid that looks disturbing like d
Re: (Score:2)
Black Puddings (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
So with used condoms it's a "Special Black Pudding" and it costs twice as much I guess.
Dumb question, why put these things in a container and ship instead of incinerating??
And the problem is... what? (Score:2, Insightful)
Plus, it seems like a simple problem of foul play between companies, why does the government get involved?
I know waste disposal is a huge problem, but this sounds like attention-whoring.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Plus, it seems like a simple problem of foul play between companies, why does the government get involved?
because at one stage companies in developed countries were pushing thier waste problems on to less developed countries where they were far less likely to be dealt with in a safe and environmentally friendly manner.
It was decided this was a bad thing and so international agreements were signed forbidding it. Someone has broken that agreement and it is now the governments job to punish them for doing so.
Hopefully this makes the article a bit more pallet (Score:5, Informative)
Since the article does not touch on it, and the information i will be presenting IS related to technology, i will hope that my lack of account (i just don't have one) will not be too much of a hindrance.
Sending one country's waste to other countries may seem like a fluke, but in fact it's a pretty big illegal industry. PBS FRONTLINE/world did a show on how old computer and technology hardware was being sent to third world countries in bulk and outside of legal channels. For those looking for the connection to 'news for nerds' this is probably as close as you can get. The old hardware is given to recycling companies who then give it to 'other companies' which ship it to third world countries where it's essentially dumped on the poor. Think parts of India, Ghana and China. The citizenry then break/corrode/melt the materials (out of necessity) using extremely toxic and unsafe means in order to sell the various valuable pieces. Furthermore, many of the hardware pieces are still in near working order, things like harddrives specifically can still be hooked up and read accurately (at one point in the show they get a harddrive from one of the dumps and it has a whole album of family photos on it, as well as financial information).
Anyways, if anyone is interested in how this practice works and why it exists, here is the link to the story as well as the video: http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/ghana804/
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hopefully this makes the article a bit more pal (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, there are rules about this sort of thing, but they are actually relatively difficult to enforce.
The fact is that some private company in Brazil, probably owned at least in part, by some very senior Brazilian officials, contracted to receive this waste, knowing full well what it contained. They got busted, and of course, claimed innocence.
"Medical waste, Oh, we thought it was Medical paste, WTF, send this stuff back !"
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
[Citation needed]
The west needs to get with it (Score:2)
Look UNDER the waste (Score:2)
Just a minute (Score:2)
People are talking as though the whole of the UK has got together and decided to send their shite to Brazil.
Though I don't doubt such a plan has its merits, the summary does makes it clear that it was SOME BRAZILIAN OUTFIT that perpetrated the misdeed: "We'll get rid of your waste for you. Don't worry. We have a safe place to put it."
No propblem. Let Brazil send it back, and let the Brazilians who initiated the wrongdoing take care of it.
Blame where blame is due, please. :rolls eyes:
Condoms??? (Score:2)
Tm
Alice's restaurant (Score:2)