Asia's is West's New Toxic Waste Dump; Tibet Target for Radioactive Waste

Asia is the West's latest toxic-waste dump, swallowing millions of tons of discards from industrialized nations each year. They used to send it to Africa, Central and Latin America, but as these regions have closed off, it's coming out to Asia Between 1990 and 1993, Australia, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States shipped more than 5.4 million tones of toxic wastes to Asia. This included household garbage, scrap lead batteries, aluminum, cadmium, plastics, and medical and radioactive wastes under the guise of recycling from the United States, Europe and Japan, a Greenpeace report said.

Waste traders plan to ship over five million more tones if Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India and Vietnam approve the proposals. These schemes also include plans to ship nuclear reactor and other radioactive wastes for disposal in Tibet and India.

Officials of Greenpeace said they and their ship, the MV Greenpeace, are in Singapore to start the group's first Southeast Asian tour highlighting Asia's growing use as a toxic waste dump.