‘Ban the Burn’: At-sea Incineration, Trans-local Activism, and Ocean Health
This article is about the rise and fall of ocean incineration, a method for the disposal of hazardous chemical waste that was initiated in the late 1960s, developed, tested, and perfected throughout the 1970s, commercialized in the 1980s, and eventually phased out from the 1990s onwards. Ocean incin...
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crsagepubl:10.1177/00220094231167328 2024-06-16T07:41:51+00:00 ‘Ban the Burn’: At-sea Incineration, Trans-local Activism, and Ocean Health Fazzi, Dario 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00220094231167328 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00220094231167328 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/00220094231167328 en eng SAGE Publications https://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license Journal of Contemporary History volume 59, issue 2, page 275-292 ISSN 0022-0094 1461-7250 journal-article 2023 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/00220094231167328 2024-05-19T12:57:16Z This article is about the rise and fall of ocean incineration, a method for the disposal of hazardous chemical waste that was initiated in the late 1960s, developed, tested, and perfected throughout the 1970s, commercialized in the 1980s, and eventually phased out from the 1990s onwards. Ocean incineration consisted in the offshore destruction of toxic liquid substances in specially designed ships outfitted with high-temperature combustion chambers and high stacks. When this technology broke through, it seemed like a panacea. It heralded the safe disposal of noxious compounds such as organochlorines and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which were ubiquitous by-products of petrochemical industrial processes. It promised to minimize private companies’ externalities and ease environmental concerns. But it ultimately failed to provide an alternative to safely disposing of toxic waste. What does explain such a decline? This article answers this question by arguing that the demise of ocean incineration was due to the combination of locally oriented and transnationally driven protests, which emerged across the (North) Atlantic and exposed the dangerous and highly exploitative nature of such a practice. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic SAGE Publications Journal of Contemporary History 59 2 275 292 |
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This article is about the rise and fall of ocean incineration, a method for the disposal of hazardous chemical waste that was initiated in the late 1960s, developed, tested, and perfected throughout the 1970s, commercialized in the 1980s, and eventually phased out from the 1990s onwards. Ocean incineration consisted in the offshore destruction of toxic liquid substances in specially designed ships outfitted with high-temperature combustion chambers and high stacks. When this technology broke through, it seemed like a panacea. It heralded the safe disposal of noxious compounds such as organochlorines and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which were ubiquitous by-products of petrochemical industrial processes. It promised to minimize private companies’ externalities and ease environmental concerns. But it ultimately failed to provide an alternative to safely disposing of toxic waste. What does explain such a decline? This article answers this question by arguing that the demise of ocean incineration was due to the combination of locally oriented and transnationally driven protests, which emerged across the (North) Atlantic and exposed the dangerous and highly exploitative nature of such a practice. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fazzi, Dario |
spellingShingle |
Fazzi, Dario ‘Ban the Burn’: At-sea Incineration, Trans-local Activism, and Ocean Health |
author_facet |
Fazzi, Dario |
author_sort |
Fazzi, Dario |
title |
‘Ban the Burn’: At-sea Incineration, Trans-local Activism, and Ocean Health |
title_short |
‘Ban the Burn’: At-sea Incineration, Trans-local Activism, and Ocean Health |
title_full |
‘Ban the Burn’: At-sea Incineration, Trans-local Activism, and Ocean Health |
title_fullStr |
‘Ban the Burn’: At-sea Incineration, Trans-local Activism, and Ocean Health |
title_full_unstemmed |
‘Ban the Burn’: At-sea Incineration, Trans-local Activism, and Ocean Health |
title_sort |
‘ban the burn’: at-sea incineration, trans-local activism, and ocean health |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00220094231167328 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00220094231167328 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/00220094231167328 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Journal of Contemporary History volume 59, issue 2, page 275-292 ISSN 0022-0094 1461-7250 |
op_rights |
https://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/00220094231167328 |
container_title |
Journal of Contemporary History |
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59 |
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2 |
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275 |
op_container_end_page |
292 |
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1802009150636425216 |