Toxic waste shipment postponed
SHIPPING: The Danish environment minister Karen Ellemann has decided to halt a shipment of highly toxic HCB waste from Australia to Denmark. The shipment was supposed to leave Sydney on Saturday, bound for Nyborg in Denmark
The halt follows political and public concern about the safety of the shipment, and the treatment of the highly toxic HCB waste once it arrived for destruction in Nyborg. Kommunekemi is said to be one of the few plants in the world that can destroy HCB
HCB is one of the most dangerous environmental toxins in the world. It is considered a probable human carcinogen and is toxic by all routes of exposure.
The toxic waste has been piling up over the past 40 years in a dumping ground outside Sydney and the mountain of HCB waste has now grown to as much as 22.000 tonnes. Australian firm Orica is desperate to find an incinerating plant that can get rid of the waste.
The German owned Beluga Fascination was hired for shipment of the first 3.000 tonnes of the toxic waste.
Souce: Copenhagen Post / maritimedanmark.dk