Project "Return to Sender"

Four thousand tons of ash from a U.S. garbage incinerator are sitting in a beach town in Haiti right now. A ship carrying this ash from the city of Philadelphia dumped it there 10 years ago, claiming it was fertilizer. The heavy metals and other toxics in the ash are blowing in the tropical wind and being carried into the sea by heavy rains. Cadmium and lead, two metals present in the ash, contribute to neurological damage, lung and bone disorders, birth defects and other health problems. Samples of adjacent soil show the toxics have migrated into the environment. In ten years, not even a fence or warning sign has been erected to protect the community.
Haitian and U.S. environmentalists have been working for years to persuade the Philadelphia and U.S. authorities to repatriate the ash without success. But just when Haitians and U.S. activists where about to give up, a solution is in sight. This web site is devoted to PROJECT RETURN TO SENDER, and a fighting chance that the toxic waste dumped in Haiti will finally be coming home. But we need your help to make it happen.