Brazil Says No to Importing Garbage
But plastic also has varying degrees of quality. According to De Oliveira, the Brazilian companies that imported the British trash believed they were importing much higher quality plastic than is commonly found in most of Brazil. They were obviously mistaken.
Nor was it the first time that Brazil had unwillingly received a toxic shipment. IBAMA spokesperson Janete Portos says Brazilian prosecutors are still investigating the arrival of a hazardous international shipment of heavy metals that reached the Santos port in 2004, but "we had never seen anything like this," said De Oliveira.
"We only have one option and that is to return the containers to the country where they came from, because we want to import other things, not trash." said Brazilian President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva at the International Organic Product and Agroecology Fair in Sao Paulo on July 23rd. "We don't want to export our trash and we aren't going to import the trash of others."
Brazil has been one of the most outspoken critics in Latin America against the import-export of electronic waste.
"We hear that Brazil doesn't even want to take used equipment because they know that's just how people cheat; that's how they dump on countries, in sending their crap, supposedly for reuse," says Kyle