Global Dumping Ground: The International Traffic In Hazardous Waste; In Partnership With Earth

Hosted by Bill Moyers, Global Dumping Ground, a superb Frontline documentary, examines a major U.S. export that is not generally heard about: toxic wastes. The program opens with a powerful narrative hook, as we follow the ocean voyage of the Khian Sea which, after leaving Philadelphia with 13,000 tons of incinerator ash, spent some 18 months at sea, visiting various foreign ports trying to dispose of its cargo. It's estimated that some 500 million tons of hazardous waste--ranging from used batteries to dry cleaning chemicals--are exported every year from the U.S. Global Dumping Ground traces some of the more prominent aspects of this business: from the megabucks exporting operation of the Colbert brothers, who were finally jailed (for their business practices, not for environmental crime) to the tons of toxic waste that cross the border into Mexico every year from L.A. Along the way, the program interviews E.P.A. officials, an entrepreneur in China who buries U.S. garbage at a profit, a doctor who reports that a group of Taiwanese schoolchildren's I.Q.'s have lowered due to a nearby recycling plant which handles millions of lead batteries shipped from the states, and an F.B.I. spokesman who cites environmental crime as one of the "priorities in the 90s." Shocking, yet mesmerizing, Global Dumping Ground alerts viewers to the darker side of waste disposal (which reaches up into the largest corporations). In contrast to the bleak portrait painted by the Frontline documentary, In Partnership With Earth is a fairly upbeat look at the success stories within corporate America on the shift from disposal to pollution prevention. Hosted by John Denver and E.P.A. Administrator Bill Reilly, the program is co-sponsored by nearly two dozen major corporations (whose views and accomplishments are, naturally, the subjects of profile here). In addition to outlining some of the newer and more innovative ideas taking place across America, the program also interviews former Senator Gaylord Nelson, who launched "Earth Day," and spokespeople for the National Audubon Society, the Wilderness Society, and the Windstar Foundation, among others. A good overview of current thinking on pollution prevention. (Note: Versar also has a half-hour version of this program in which much of the corporate footage is cut--either version is available.) Global Dumping Ground is highly recommended. Editor's Choice. In Partnership With Earth is recommended. (For availability of Global Dumping Ground see THE FOREST THROUGH THE TREES.) (In Partnership With Earth is available from: Versar, Inc., 6850 Versar Center, P.O. Box 1549, Springfield, VA 22151.)