In regard to the above letter from Mr. Thilo Bode, executive director of Greenpeace International, I will not take your readers' time by responding to Mr. Bode's predictable repetition of outdated and discredited attacks on WMX Technologies Inc. (Waste Management). Instead I would wholeheartedly endorse Mr. Bode's recommendation that parties interested in the dispute between us read the Greenpeace report side-by. side with O'Melveny & Myers' analysis of our performance. Across the world, Waste Management employs 73,000 people, almost all of whom consider themselves to be good environmentalists. We firmly believe that the work we do every day helps make the world a better place by safeguarding the environment from the potential dangers of society's by-products. We are also reassured that, despite Greenpeace's best efforts to discredit us, our work has won and continues to win, for us and for the WMX group, a wealth of respect, millions of customers and a substantial trophy cabinet of environmental awards across the world.
Over the last decade, our company and our business have evolved quickly. It is true that in its early years Waste Management offered mainly "end-of-pipe" solutions to managing society's waste. But, mirroring societal' concerns and technological advances, we have become a leading exponent of the closed-loop systems favoured by Greenpeace. We invite Mr. Bode to meet with us and bring Greenpeace up to date with what we are doing. We are possibly the largest single contributor to the recycling effort worldwide. Today, Waste Management offers customers (public and private) an integrated package of on and off-site waste management services. These encompass waste prevention and minimisation services, waste re- use and recycling and, ultimately, final safe disposal of any residual materials. Waste Management operates 235 dedicated materials recovery (recycling) facilities worldwide (excluding composting facilities and waste-to-energy plants), and we generated income from recycling activities of $675 million (16.9 billion baht) in 1995. We will use our capabilities in this area go forward in Thailand.
Our people have the utmost respect for Thailand. We admire the dramatic progress which is being made by its people. It is to their credit that Thailand has recognized the importance of managing the waste which is generated in their rapidly developing economy. The Government's approach to the management of hazardous waste follows the direction taken at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio and the framework for sustainable development set out in Agenda 21. This places Thailand firmly in the mainstream of environmental thinking today. Accordingly, we are proud to be working with the Thai Government in developing the capacity to manage the industrial waste being generated - every day in Thailand.
Privately, Greenpeace leaders admit that Waste Management's facilities are among the best designed and operated in the world, yet the organization continues to attack us. Why? As Mr. Bode says in his letter, because he believes the services offered by the waste management industry retard the development of the closed loop system. Is this true?
I do not know what the best way is to encourage sustainable closed loop systems in Mr. Bode's native country, Germany. In Thailand, however, the surest way to encourage industrial waste reduction is to provide an environmentally sound central disposal facility which will, for the first time in this country, define the cost of continuing to generate chemical wastes. Our experience in other parts of the world is that the existence of central facilities, coupled with public pressure to use them, leads to rapid and dramatic reductions in the amounts of hazardous waste produced by industry. Central facility availability plus cost of environmentally sound disposal plus public pressure to use the facility equals incentive to reduce hazardous waste generation and adopt closed loop systems.
Mr. Bode's exhortations to reduce waste are not going to solve the
urgent problem
posed by the hundreds of thousands of tons of hazardous and toxic waste being
produced
annually in Thailand. Working together, the Thai Government, private sector
and Waste
Management will.
Patrick Heininger
Country Manager
Waste Management"
(Letter to the Editor, Bangkok Post, July 3, 1996)