Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 3: The politics of wasteBox 9: Toxic giftsThe pesticide industry, from its origins in the 1930s, was part of the explosivegrowth in manufacturing and marketing of chemicals after World War II. Theprovision of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals became standard practicein development programmes throughout the world, as exemplified in the GreenRevolution in Asia. This has made agriculture the largest diffuse source of pollution.In addition to this, unused and obsolete pesticides become toxic waste. The global‘stockpile’ of obsolete pesticides, scattered in storerooms and sheds, is estimated atsome 500,000 tonnes with 200,000 tonnes in Eastern Europe and at least 50,000tonnes abandoned in Africa.In the 1980s the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) began inventoryingobsolete pesticides in Africa. After discovering its extent, FAO raised funds for aclean-up. The Africa Stockpiles Programme (ASP) was initiated in 2000 by nongovernmentorganisations (NGOs) including the Pesticide Action Network (PAN)and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). It is now a multi-stakeholderpartnership involving African country governments, regional bodies, internationalagencies and the private sector as well as NGOs. The ASP aims to clean up pesticidewastes and dispose of them in an environmentally sound manner. At around $3,500per tonne, the cost will be in the order of $175-200 million. In addition, informationand prevention programmes are estimated at around $50-75 million, bringing thetotal cost to over $250 million. 42Following the exposure of Danida’s plan, disposal of the obsolete pesticides remainscontroversial. The ASP encourages non-burn disposal technologies but, in 2005,incinerator vendors were present at ASP meetings and NGOs fear that governmentsand business want to upgrade existing incinerators or use cement kilns in Africa.Currently, collected pesticides are incinerated in Europe. It seems that the operatorsof non-burn facilities did not bid for the disposal because they could not meetthe difficult requirements for international transport whereas the better resourcedincinerator operators could.NGOs support disposal in Europe partly because it is better able to managehazardous wastes but also because the problem originates in European and otherNorthern countries.42 see www.africastockpiles.orgWasting the Nation - groundWork - 61 -