the toxic truth - Greenpeace

8 Amnesty internAtionAl And greenpeAce netherlAnds
kEy faCTS Of ThE CaSE
summarY oF
tHe KeY FaCts
oF tHe Case
In late 2005, a multinational trading
company called Trafigura decided to
buy large amounts of an unrefined
gasoline called coker naphtha.
Trafigura intended to use the coker
naphtha as a cheap blendstock
for fuels, but first needed to find
a way of refining it. This was done
through an industrial process called
caustic washing, initially carried
out on land, but later at sea, on
board a ship named Probo Koala.
Internal Trafigura email communications which
came to light during court proceedings in the
UK in 2009 confirm that the company was
aware before starting the caustic washing
process that the resulting waste would be
hazardous and difficult to dispose of. In June
2006, after several unsuccessful attempts
to dispose of the waste, Trafigura contacted
a Dutch company, Amsterdam Port Services
(APS), and arranged to deliver the waste
in Amsterdam. The Probo Koala arrived in
Amsterdam on 2 July 2006, and APS began
to unload the waste on to one of its barges.
However, a terrible stench emanating from the
waste led APS to test it. They found it was far
more contaminated than they had thought,
and raised the price for treatment, from €27
per m 3 to €1,000 per m 3 .
Akouédo dump site. This is the location where Trafigura
contracted with a small Ivorian company to dispose of large
amounts of toxic waste without treatment.
© Amnesty InternAtIonAl