The Toxic Ship
The Voyage of the Khian Sea and the Global Waste Trade
Published on 21. August 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
266 pages
978-0-295-75183-2 (ISBN)
Description
Winner of the 2025 Hagley Prize for the Best Book in Business History from the Business History Conference and the Hagley Library
Winner of the 2025 Harold and Margaret Sprout Award from the International Studies Association
An infamous voyage explores the hazardous waste trade and environmental justice
In 1986 the Khian Sea, carrying thousands of tons of incinerator ash from Philadelphia, began a two-year journey, roaming the world's oceans in search of a dumping ground. Its initial destination and then country after country refused to accept the waste. The ship ended up dumping part of its load in Haiti under false pretenses, and the remaining waste was illegally dumped in the ocean. Two shipping company officials eventually received criminal convictions.
Simone M. Mueller uses the Khian Sea's voyage as a lens to elucidate the global trade in hazardous waste-the movement of material ranging from outdated consumer products and pesticides to barges filled with all sorts of toxic discards-from the 1970s to the present day, exploring the story's international nodes and detailing the downside of environmental conscientiousness among industrial nations as waste is pushed outward. Mueller also highlights the significance of the trip's start in Philadelphia, a city with a significant African American population. The geographical origins shed light on environmental racism within the United States in the context of the global story of environmental justice. Activism in response to the ship's journey set an important precedent, and this book brings together the many voices that shaped the international trade in hazardous waste.
Winner of the 2025 Harold and Margaret Sprout Award from the International Studies Association
An infamous voyage explores the hazardous waste trade and environmental justice
In 1986 the Khian Sea, carrying thousands of tons of incinerator ash from Philadelphia, began a two-year journey, roaming the world's oceans in search of a dumping ground. Its initial destination and then country after country refused to accept the waste. The ship ended up dumping part of its load in Haiti under false pretenses, and the remaining waste was illegally dumped in the ocean. Two shipping company officials eventually received criminal convictions.
Simone M. Mueller uses the Khian Sea's voyage as a lens to elucidate the global trade in hazardous waste-the movement of material ranging from outdated consumer products and pesticides to barges filled with all sorts of toxic discards-from the 1970s to the present day, exploring the story's international nodes and detailing the downside of environmental conscientiousness among industrial nations as waste is pushed outward. Mueller also highlights the significance of the trip's start in Philadelphia, a city with a significant African American population. The geographical origins shed light on environmental racism within the United States in the context of the global story of environmental justice. Activism in response to the ship's journey set an important precedent, and this book brings together the many voices that shaped the international trade in hazardous waste.
Reviews / Votes
"[B]rilliant . . . One of Mueller's main merits is that she has been able to offer a simultaneously concise, elegant, and illustrative narrative."(H-Environment) "An exceptional book about the history of a ship and the waste that it contained, a waste so extraordinary that it challenged the political order of Philadelphia, questioned the scientific authority of U.S. government agencies, and remade the global waste trade. . . . [W]hat Mueller demonstrates so well was how this one ship with its one load of waste was itself a shadow proxy of the technological and scientific developments occurring across multiple industries, a history that is tightly linked to environmental justice concerns and long-standing patterns of racial and toxic colonialism in the United States and the Global South."
(Technology and Culture) "What makes The Toxic Ship such an insightful and enjoyable book lies in Mueller's careful work to keep the essential drama and outrage of that headline-making story while also fleshing out the many contexts that fueled the ship's long purgatory at sea. . . . Mueller's book deserves a spot not just in the growing historiography of the environmental justice movement but as a crucial text in understanding the centrality of oceans as sites of creating and consolidating unequal global relations."
(American Historical Review) "[I]llustrates timely concepts that serve waste studies well from the crucial perspective of recent global history."
(Journal of American History) "Mueller's narrative style provides ample background context for readers unfamiliar with waste history. . . . The Toxic Ship is a significant addition to scholarship on the global context of environmental (in)justice and is suitable for advanced undergraduates. Recommended for scholars and general readers interested in waste studies, colonialist legacies within globalization, and environmental policy."
(Environmental History)
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Seattle
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
7 b&w illus., 4 maps
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
437 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-295-75183-2 (9780295751832)
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Schweitzer Classification