Taiwan’s Serial Water Polluter

In December 2013 Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE Inc.) was found to have illegally discharged highly acidic wastewater containing nickel into the Houjin River, damaging 1390 hectares of farmland as well as offshore fishing industries downstream. Their actions have caused great indignation among Taiwanese society. Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan, through the International Campaign for Responsible Technology (ICRT), was able to reveal to the world ASE’s incompetence. A joint statement signed by 50 international environmental NGOs in 18 countries condemned ASE’s dangerous and polluting behavior. The NGOs appealed to Apple, Intel and other brands to take responsibility for the management of their supply chain and to ask ASE to undertake due diligence in corporate responsibility, environment protection and worker rights.

ASE has stated that this misconduct was a one-off event. In fact, according to the Environmental Protection Administration Pollution Management Database, the ASE Kaohsiung Plant violated the Water Pollution Control Act and other environmental regulations 29 times between March 2011 and December 2013.It has cost ASE a total of NT$113,889,562(≈US$3,457,312, with US$137,516 in fines and US$3,319,796 of illegal profit).It is clear therefore that ASE is a serial polluter of the Houjin River. What’s worse, even though ASE K7 was ordered to suspend operations on December 20, 2013, other ASE plants were still violating a number of environment regulations and by June of 2014 had already been given 19 violation notices. This demonstrates the existence of a serious problem with ASE’s environmental management. ASE attempted to curtail controversy by stating the misconduct was a one-off event to avoid undertaking corporate social responsibility of environmental protection, information disclosure and public participation.

Due to the fact that the current legislation in Taiwan is too lenient, ASE has only been fined NT$3,000,000 for the illegal wastewater discharge mentioned above. This fine neither meets the principle of proportionality nor provides an effective deterrent. We not only are pushing to change the law, but also invite all of the consumers and organizations that are concerned about pollution within the electronic industry to join our campaign. Voice your concerns and write to Apple and Intel: Ask them to give up their present economic model which results in the exploitation of the environmental quality of manufacturing countries and the damaging of weaker industries all in exchange for greater profits. Ask them to take responsible action to eliminate pollution within their production chain. We hope that through our joint effort, not only will ASE finally stop polluting, but also bring us a step closer towards a new global green economy.

ASE’s Greenwashing Tricks

• Donates NT$100,000,000 annually for environmental protection
  Actually: The use of the donation has not been fully disclosed; however it would clearly save them tax money. 
• Donates LED lights for elementary schools in Kaohsiung City
  Actually: Most of the schools already have energy saving bulbs installed. Therefore, the schools have suggested that ASE could help by donating books, teaching equipment and environmental education resources. These ideas however were either turned down or ignored. 
• Collaborates with National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology to fund the Center for Sustainability and promote environmental education.
  Actually: It is quite ironic that a company that keeps polluting the environment claims to be dedicated environmental education. Shouldn’t they first re-exam their practices using the checklist we have made below? 
• Boasted that in the future discharged water would be completely pollution free.
  Actually: ASE would not promise that its effluent would meet the irrigation water quality standard, nor did it propose a timetable for a pollution free water discharge 
• Sponsored research projects for five universities in Southern Taiwan.
  Actually: Each project was only granted between NT$800,000 and NT$1,000,000 which limits the research to address internal issues only. This could be seen an attempt to bribe the researchers into silence. 
• Planted trees and built green factories and offices.
  Actually: ASE should get the basics right and stop its pollution immediately instead of greenwashing.

As ASE is getting ready to resume operation of its K7 plant, the heavy metal levels in Houjing River still exceed the irrigation water quality standard. Without any action taken to avoid further pollution to the river, the 1,390-hecter rice fields, fish farms, and offshore fisheries downstream are forced to depend on the polluted water. At the same time citizens have no way to find out what has been done by ASE or the government to offset the environmental the damage.

It is really sad to see that ASE is not caring about the important issues!

ASE has not made any effort to restore the Houjing River’s water quality nor has it built in any mechanisms for public supervision. It has however spent millions of dollars on greenwashing to cover up its failure in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and thus pave the way for resuming operations.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

The removal of toxic substances, protection of the surrounding environment, strengthening of information transparency and public participation are all considered by the international community to be part of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Therefore, many leading electronics companies have required their suppliers to meet the above demands. In March 2014 we informed Apple and Intel that ASE did not fulfill its CSR duty. However to our disappointment Apple did not start to more strictly manage its supplier but instead placed a large order with ASE. Additionally the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), which comprises of many international electronics companies such as Intel, has not yet made available its report on ASE’s misconduct. In other words, the claim that “we are committed to environment responsibility and recognize stakeholders’ rights” from these super giants of consumer products is merely empty talk. New products like the iPhone 6 and iWatch are in fact made by dishonest manufacturers at the expense of Taiwan’s environment, ignoring people’s right to know.

We also want to make clear that current legislation and subsequent enactment are not strict enough to get ASE to change its ways. The penalty for violation of the Water Pollution Control Act is too little to make the polluting companies change their ways. ASE was only asked to upgrade their wastewater treatment facility, but not required to pay for the damage to the ecosystem or practice CSR. The Kaohsiung City government on the one hand ordered suspension of the factory, and on the other hand, probably in fear of the damage compensation claims by the company afterwards, became quite conservative and stuck rigidly to the current legislation without asking ASE to take responsibility for the environmental losses. Furthermore, citizens were kept outside of the audit committee meetings in which discussion of the facility inspection and the resumption operations took place. Moreover, as direct supervisors of the company, both Kaohsiung Export Processing Zone Management and Industrial Development Bureau seemed to steer clear from ASE’s controversy and did not propose any further demands or conduct more rigorous supervision.

Let’s supervise ASE together!

If corporations manage to evade their social and environmental responsibilities and the government stays reluctant to supervise them, Taiwan’s image and level of competitiveness will be greatly damaged. Even worse is that it will harm the natural environment and effect food safety, which will affect people’s quality of life. We have therefore made checklists for ASE, Kaohsiung City government, and central government respectively and invite citizens to join us, in monitoring what has or hasn’t been done:

→ Checklist for Taiwan’s Serial Water Polluter

Save Taiwan by Joining Our Campaign

Our appeal to ASE:

1. Promise that effluent will meet the irrigation water standard, and propose a timetable for zero wastewater discharge.
2. Fully investigate the pollution in the Houjing River, restore its ecosystem, and pay for farmer’s and fishermen’s losses.
3. Make wastewater discharge data transparent and accept community supervision.
4. Donate annually the NT$100,000,000 (≈US$3,290,000), as promised, directly to the Water Pollution Control Fund, supervised by either central or local government. The fund will support river pollution prevention and related investigations.

VOICE YOUR CONCERNS AND WRITE TO APPLE AND INTEL, ASKING THEM TO TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR SUPERVISING THEIR SUPPLIERS!

《Sample Letter》

Mail to Apple：tcook@apple.com
Mail to Intel：ProductEcology@intel.com

Further Reading

• ASE sentence too lenient to stop future illegal activity
• What has the government learnt from ASE’s misconduct?
• Taipei Times--Safeguards needed for nation's land (2013.12.22)
• EE Times--Is ASE No Longer a ‘Serial Polluter (2014.11.10)