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To Make This Tofu, Start by Burning Toxic Plastic
Plastic waste from America, collected for recycling, is shipped to Indonesia. Some is burned as fuel by tofu makers, producing deadly chemicals and contaminating food.
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TROPODO, Indonesia Black smoke billows from smokestacks towering above the village. The smell of burning plastic fills the air. Patches of black ash cover the ground. Its another day of making tofu.
More than 30 commercial kitchens in Tropodo, a village on the eastern side of Indonesias main island, Java, fuel their tofu production by burning a mix of paper and plastic waste, some of it shipped from the United States after Americans dumped it in their recycling bins.
The backyard kitchens produce much of the areas tofu, an inexpensive and high-protein food made from soy that is an important part of the local diet. But the smoke and ash produced by the burning plastic has far-reaching and toxic consequences.
Testing of eggs laid by chickens in Tropodo, a village of 5,000 people, found high levels of several hazardous chemicals including dioxin a pollutant known to cause cancer, birth defects and Parkinsons disease according to a report released this week by an alliance of Indonesian and international environmental groups.
The dioxin found in Tropodo is the end product in a chain of malfeasance, carelessness and governmental neglect.
They start the burning early in the morning and go until evening, said Karnawi, 84, who lives near seven of the plastic-burning commercial kitchens. It happens every day and the smoke is always in the air. For me, its difficult to breathe. Like many Indonesians, Mr. Karnawi uses only one name.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/14/world/asia/indonesia-tofu-dioxin-plastic.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage
mucifer
(23,572 posts)that makes tofu out of soybeans here in Chicago Phoenix Tofu https://www.phoenixbean.com/aboutus.html
I am going to stop buying other tofu
That article is so sad.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,447 posts)People try to do some good -- recycle their plastic waste.
Corporation sees more profit to sell that waste, halfway around the world.
Ships burn a bunch of fossil fuel to haul huge load of fossil fuel product over there.
People burn the plastic -- producing toxic smoke along with those wonderful greenhouse gases -- and contaminate their food and food chain.
This is madness.