Brazil has sent a ship filled with containers of trash that included dirty diapers, used syringes, food waste and computer parts from Great Britain back to where it came from. A company in Britain sent the 89 containers of waste under the pretense that it was actually plastic to be recycled.
As industrial countries grow, they create more waste and find fewer places at home to dump it. Sending the waste across the oceans to developing nations or just dumping it into the ocean has become familiar.
Companies in Britain and Brazil are being investigated as to why the waste was shipped in the first place. Also being investigated is a similar incident that occurred last year at another port farther south.
Brazil has a law banning the importation of foreign garbage, but companies with money can gamble on whether or not their scam will work. Waste-producing corporations pay companies to get rid of it, few questions asked.
4 1 minute read
