Global waste flow, like the free flow of finance and goods in the new free trade regime is now a reality akin to imperialistic aggression on our vulnerable ecological space. The monolith of devilishly dirty corporate houses has as its mandate what Lawrence Summers, former Chief Economist of the World Bank and former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury wrote in a memo: "Shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging more migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs (lesser developed countries)? I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that. ... I've always thought that under populated countries in Africa are vastly under polluted; their air quality is vastly inefficiently low compared to Los Angeles or Mexico City." According their dictum of globalisation, profit making from waste generating and polluting industries, first, in their own country and later owing to stricter environmental norms, transferring them to LDCs makes sound business sense!

Two wrongs do not make a right but two rights in the shape of Zero Waste Initiative and Life Cycle Assessment of products can undo some of the glaring wrongs. But instead a single, homogenized, globally toxic model of development has fuelled a blinkered economic growth. The rich communities and financial institutions of industrialized nations of the North have brought forth alarming side effects for the poorest communities of the South. The disastrous effects include increasingly huge volumes of new hazardous wastes, emanating from rich countries and being dumped in poor countries. The impact is mostly on the poorest communities of the southern nations.

Mining operations of all kind produce waste. Reaching the source of the mineral involves digging out all sorts of unwanted materials and destroying the topsoil, generating huge amounts of waste. Rubble, which remains after minerals have largely been extracted, is also a waste. Also at end of the processing of the minerals there is toxic waste generation. India, for instance, produces 89 minerals, these result in diverse kinds of potentially hazardous waste. If one takes the case of manganese ore to product and ore to waste ratio-for an average grade of 30 percent the ore to overburden ratio is that for every 13 million tones for ore mined 9 million tones must be disposed of as waste. Similarly, for every 5 gram of gold produced there is 1 tonne waste produced, for every 20 percent of coal produced there is 80 percent waste generation and for 12-14 gram of copper 1 tonne of waste is being generated in Malanjkhand copper field, Madhya Pradesh.

Global Mining Initiative (GMI), for instance, does not take into cognisance the problem of the mining companies discharging their wastes rock or tailings in the sea and in some cases even in the river system, which is ecologically disastrous. The most widespread problem associated with waste dumps is acid drainage, which can have serious impact on the productivity of the ecosystems. “Leaching of heavy metals and its impact in communities is a huge problem”.

Although scientists believe that no impermeable sheeting is impermeable enough, dumps, which are susceptible to acid drainage, require permanent impermeable sheeting. Acid drainage persists in the environment and has serious impact on surface and groundwater and aquatic life. Once the process of acid generation starts, it is difficult to stop it. The combination of acidity and dissolved toxic contaminants kills almost all forms of aquatic life. It is leading to an alarming reduction in our Natural Capital but GMI callously talks of Critical Natural Capital.

For poor nations, waste is a misplaced resource, requiring sane management instead of undue technological interventions with ulterior motives. The waste based economic activity of salvaging and recycling needs to be environmentally sustainable. It must meet the genuine needs of the present generation without compromising those of future generations through catastrophic pollution of the earth's life support system. Polluting industries are here to stay, therefore, it is high time we set up a legally and constitutionally binding clean production and recycling system with a mandate to enforce corporate accountability in the southern nations. We have but one earth… Myopic corporate activities based on the assumption that there is a spare one left to be used in future need to be severely penalized.