I ran across an interesting item when I first came out to Africa. While reading the contract between the US Department of Defense and my company on the handling of waste I found the standard language of all waste is the responsibility of the contractor to dispose of properly.
This is not an issue, as this is standard language. The problem arose when I found out there is no legal means of achieving the requirement of properly. At our location the local community does not have proper landfill or way of disposing of waste. So any waste leaving the client's property would end up at a landfill (placement unit) that the international community recognizes as a hazard to the local community and environment.
When the client was made aware of this issue they pointed to the contract and indicated that it was not their problem.
The truth of the matter that in the states or outside of the states the US DOD can not contract away its liability for safety or environmental responsibilities, including waste. Any waste that is improperly disposed of by a contractor remains the property of the owner, in this case the US DOD. They can not hide behind the contract if the host country decides to prosecute. Now what is the likely hood of a penalty arising from such as situation? Not very high. But then again, there is the issue of doing the right thing.
