ATLANTA, July 17, 1996 (GP) -- Greenpeace has uncovered a trail of paper and plastic indicating that waste now rotting on board a cargo ship in Hong Kong harbor has come from Atlanta, the host city of the 1996 Olympics. The 200 metric ton shipment of plastic waste, including thousands of shopping bags from the Winn Dixie supermarket chain, is part of a common trend to use Asia as a dumping site for U.S. waste disguised for "recycling".

"The Wynn-Dixie consumers have been had. They should be outraged to find out that the plastic waste they conscientiously return to the store for recycling is actually being shipped to third world countries" said Kishi Animashaun, Greenpeace Toxics Campaigner in Atlanta. "We should not be dumping our waste problems anywhere," added Ms. Animashaun.

Greenpeace is requesting The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) provide proof that none of the waste generated at the Olympics will be shipped to third world countries. ACOG has publicized its commitment to recycle 85 percent of the expected 9,000 tons of solid waste generated during the Olympics. To achieve this mark they are counting on more than 1,000 volunteers from environmental organizations throughout the state.

"We hope the ACOG will not allow any of the plastic waste from the Olympic Games to follow the fate of the Winn Dixie plastic bags," stated Ms. Animashaum.

The Winn Dixie waste was refused by Chinese officials. China is clamping down on waste trade since their government passed tough new environmental laws in support of the international Basel Convention, which restricts waste shipments from developed to developing countries. The United States has failed to become a party to this Convention. The U.S. export of wastes covered by China's national ban are considered illegal.

Greenpeace investigation uncovered that the waste was shipped from Atlanta to Los Angeles and then China through Hong Kong. The consignment of plastic was contaminated by household waste including dirty tin cans, metal fittings and rotting food. Chinese officials in the port of Fuzhou refused to allow it to be unloaded. The ship is now in Hong Kong where it was also refused permission to unload. It has been languishing in the harbor since July 4 with the crew surrounded by the stench of rotting waste.

Greenpeace contacted the Winn-Dixie headquarters, in Jacksonville, Florida, and called on the company take its trash back to the United States. Winn-Dixie has refused.

"We hoped Winn-Dixie, as a leading supermarket chain in the U.S., would be a responsible corporate citizen," said Clement Lam Hau Keen, Greenpeace International campaigner in Hong Kong. "Instead they are shirking their moral obligation to take back their trash and not dump it in Asia."