Grand Final Time, page-26

In the news in recent times, in country Victoria and Melbourne suburbs, we've had a tyre mountain discovered and toxic chemicals stacked high in warehouses.

Clearly, the businesses who create these wastes want them gone. So they are trucked away. To where? Well it's clear the truck drivers and trucking companies know where to take them. If the trucking companies own the dump sites, then they are complicit in this illegal practice.

But what if they don't own the dump sites and just pay to drop them off. Then they can say "not my problem".

At each stage, the waste producer, transporter and storer could be separate businesses. Or maybe not. Each is working on the assumption that "out of sight is out of mind". Why would they do this? Because it's cheaper then doing it properly.

I'm not suggesting PASS is toxic. In situ, it's not. But the process for disposal is the same. The people digging it up, give it to the people who transport it who hand it over to the people who treat and store it. What do the people who dig it up care where it's stored and treated. UNLESS, new EPA guidelines place a  responsibility on those who create the waste to make sure it's properly treated. And that's going to happen because State Governments are sick of the sort of problems that arise when the waste producers take no responsibility for the disposal of same.

Nanu