After persistently denying that harmful waste was purposely dumped on the Ivory Coast, oil-trading company Trafigura has offered to pay damages to settle a suit brought against them on behalf of 31,000 citizens who say they were harmed by the waste. Internal emails show that the company began the controversy by purposely buying a cheap, dirty form of Mexican oil. In order to sell the oil, it was rid of impurities and cleaned by dumping caustic soda and a catalyst into the dirty oil (a cheap and rough process known as "caustic washing"). This method is effectively banned in most countries because it produces a highly toxic waste. Emails referring to the difficulty of dumping the waste because of its "hazardous nature" clearly demonstrate the company knew of its damaging properties. Nevertheless, after being turned away in the Netherlands, the toxic waste ended up in the hands of Solomon Ugburogbu, who had no facilities to process hazardous materials (he is now serving a 20 year sentence for poisoning local people). Though in 2007 Trafigura paid 100 million euros to the Ivorian government to "compensate the victims," compensation on a much larger scale is now in the works as evidence of their guilt continues to come to light.
By: Megan Shoemate
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