Huge mercury scandal, huge reporting?

[The Brain]

It has recently come to my attention that mercury collected over decades from Swedish batteries and sent by the government to a German company for conditioning and final deposit didn't quite make it there. Only 25% ended up in the deposit, the rest was sold on the black export market. So far so interesting. What makes it fascinating to me is that this was discovered 2 years ago and Swedish media have been completely silent on this (until now), and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency that was responsible for selecting the company has kept quiet. So much for actually caring about environmental issues I guess.

The Swedish material (40 tons in total) is just a small part, something like 1000 tons have been sold illegally by the company.

Obviously no one in Sweden will be held responsible for this. The government handing mercury for deposit to a company that sells it on illegally is considered OK and not even worth mentioning. Now I don't think that people at the SEPA were in on this and got a cut, but this sure as heck has to be looked into. It won't be though.

I will have to be forgiven for viewing the government's commitment to the environment with a wee bit of amused skepticism from now on.

http://www.eeb.org/index.cfm/news-events/news/illegal-trade-undermines-europe-s-commitments-towards-strong-mercury-controls/

[Duque de Bragança]

So here goes the legend of Swedish transparency. How the mighty have fallen.
A bit like when Sweden made bestiality illegal. 

[Archy]

Is this concerning red mercury or Freddy Mercury? 

[mongers]

Is this concerning red mercury or Freddy Mercury? 

My, aren't you a mercurial soul. 

[LaCroix]

they probably didn't think it mattered. 40 tons of mercury gets sent to a third party, and that third party sells the mercury on the black market. everyone did their job on the swedish part. one could speculate whether a dirty deal went down and spend resources investigating the deal, but you could say the same with almost every big transaction where hiccups arise

[The Brain]

they probably didn't think it mattered. 40 tons of mercury gets sent to a third party, and that third party sells the mercury on the black market. everyone did their job on the swedish part. one could speculate whether a dirty deal went down and spend resources investigating the deal, but you could say the same with almost every big transaction where hiccups arise

A possible dirty deal is the least of the problems. The main problem is that the mercury got sold on the black market. Did the SEPA (or whoever was legally responsible for the waste) do their job? Possible, but unlikely. Responsibility for waste is fairly strict. Their audits (they did those I hope...) didn't reveal that their supplier was a major mercury smuggler, which may mean they weren't good enough. Did the SEPA actually shoulder the responsibilty of getting the mercury into a deposit? Signs point to no.

If the government treats mercury as unimportant they get in a weird position in discussions regarding other kinds of waste.

[Martinus]

I thought they are doing to Mercury now what they did to poor Pluto.

[KRonn]

Mercury is a toxic substance, toxic to the environment and people, so most nations have laws governing its use and disposal. Is there any idea as to where/whom this stuff is being sold to? Where does it wind up and how being used?

[The Brain]

Mercury is a toxic substance, toxic to the environment and people, so most nations have laws governing its use and disposal. Is there any idea as to where/whom this stuff is being sold to? Where does it wind up and how being used?

AFAIK one use is questionable gold mining methods in the third world where workers (and the environment) are directly exposed to mercury.

[Malthus]

Mercury is a toxic substance, toxic to the environment and people, so most nations have laws governing its use and disposal. Is there any idea as to where/whom this stuff is being sold to? Where does it wind up and how being used?

Swedish alchemists, I assume. 

[Valmy]

Swedish alchemists, I assume. 

Sweden suddenly doubles the world's gold reserves but mysteriously runs low on iron ore.