• During the study, egg samples from 14 countries were analysed for Plastic Waste Poisoning Food and Threatening Communities in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin America
• The study focused on very toxic persistent organic pollutants entering the food chain at locations where plastic waste is being recycled, burned, incinerated or dumped
A new report has revealed that toxic chemicals in plastic waste exports from wealthy countries are contaminating food in developing countries.
The report ‘Plastic Waste Poisoning Food and Threatening Communities in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin America’ demonstrates how plastic waste handling methods end up poisoning local populations.
The findings released on Tuesday by the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) said virtually all plastics contain hazardous chemical additives.
“Most of the plastic waste exported from wealthy countries to developing economies or economies in transition is landfilled, burned, or dumped into waterways. All of these disposal methods result in highly toxic emissions that remain in the environment for decades and build up in the food chain,” the report said.
IPEN is a global environmental network of over 600 public interest NGOs in 124 countries.
Registered in Sweden as a public interest non-profit organisation, IPEN works to eliminate and reduce the most hazardous substances to forge a toxic-free future for all.
During the study, egg samples from 14 countries were analysed for Plastic Waste Poisoning Food and Threatening Communities in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin America.
The samples of free-range chicken eggs and reference eggs from Gabon, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines, Tanzania and Uruguay were sampled during the period from April 2019 until January 2020.
Samples from Pitarne in the Czech Republic were taken by the end of 2017 as part of the project focused on plastic waste recycling sites, and reference samples were collected in Prague in April 2018 and February 2019.
One additional sample from Pitarne was taken in August 2020. The analyses of recently sampled eggs were conducted in European laboratories between June 2019 and March 2020.
The focus of the study was on very toxic persistent organic pollutants entering the food chain at locations where plastic waste is being recycled, burned, incinerated, or dumped.
Samples of free-range chicken eggs were analysed for brominated and chlorinated dioxins.
For this study, NGOs in fourteen countries which in many cases receive plastic waste from abroad collected free-range chicken eggs in the vicinity of various plastic waste disposal sites and facilities.
The egg collection sites included plastic and electronic waste yards; waste dumpsites with significant amounts of plastic wastes; recycling and shredder plants that deal with significant amounts of plastic waste; and waste incineration and waste-to-energy operations.
The eggs were then analysed for dioxin contamination, a highly toxic byproduct of open burning, crude recycling, chemical production, and incineration technologies.
Additionally, the eggs were analysed for other toxic chemicals known as persistent organic chemicals (POPs) that have been banned or are in the process of being banned globally through the Stockholm Convention.
Even small amounts of these plastic chemical additives and byproduct emissions can cause damage to the immune and reproductive systems, cancers, impaired intellectual functions, and/or developmental delays.
IPEN’s POPs Policy Advisor Lee Bell said, “This report confirms that the harm being caused by plastic waste exports is not limited to visible litter and pollution but includes the insidious damage to human health caused by contamination of the food chain in importing countries. Toxic chemical additives and the world’s most hazardous substances are literally bleeding into the food supply of those countries least able to prevent it.”
The report found that the levels of dioxin and polychlorinated biphenyls in eggs in some locations were so high that residents could not eat a single egg without exceeding the safe limits for these chemicals established in the European Union.
The analysed eggs contained some of the most toxic chemicals ever studied, many of which are banned or regulated by international law, including dioxins, and chemical additives.
In nearly every open, plastic waste site where eggs were sampled, dioxin levels exceeded the European Union (EU) safe consumption maximum limit.
Griffins Ochieng from the Centre for Environment Justice and Development-Kenya said Africa is not a major plastic or chemical producer.
“But plastic waste and the contamination that comes with it is growing in Africa. This is because wealthy countries are exporting their waste to us. This problem will only grow worse in the coming years if it is not stopped now.”
This is the first in a series of IPEN reports on how chemicals used by the plastics industry are contaminating communities in countries with developing economies or economies in transition.
The report has called for the ban and the halting of production and use of plastics as well as the ban on toxic additives in plastics.
It also recommended that the imports of plastic and electronic waste exports be halted.