Witness History artwork

The Ship that Dumped America's Waste

Witness History

English - September 10, 2018 07:58 - 9 minutes - 4.14 MB - ★★★★★ - 853 ratings
History Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed

Next Episode: Appeasement

In 1988 a ship named 'Khian Sea' dumped 4,000 tons of incinerated ash close to the beach in the town of Gonaives, in northern Haiti. The ash had originally come from the city of Philadelphia, and had been aboard the Khian Sea for more than a year, while it searched for a country that would accept it. Mike Lanchin has been speaking to Kenny Bruno, a Greenpeace campaigner who tracked the ship as it sailed across the oceans with its cargo of waste. He recalls the battle to get the ash sent back to the US.

Photo: Campaigner Kenny Bruno photographed in front of the ash pile in Gonaives, Haiti (1988, Greenpeace)