Kronos, one of the world's largest producers of titanium dioxide whitening agent, is a multinational company that claims to promote a circular economy, uphold high social and environmental standards, and strive for responsible mining of the raw materials it uses. In practice, the director in the Ghent port area does not know exactly where the ores used in his factory come from and under what conditions they are extracted. For the time being, the factory runs on a by-product of oil, produces a substance suspected of being carcinogenic and ecotoxic, and its emissions are a cause of great concern to local residents.
Eastman, located a little further down the road, is an American multinational that prides itself on leading the world towards a circular economy rich in innovative materials and free of plastic waste. However, the NGO ChemSec, which assesses companies on how they manage the transition to safer, more sustainable chemicals, gives Eastman a poor score of 19 out of 100. One of the points of criticism is that the company also produces fifteen chemicals in Belgium that are on the SIN list of hazardous substances that should be replaced as soon as possible.
Among them is thiram, a pesticide that has been banned in the EU since 2019 and must therefore be exported to places where it is still permitted on the market. In 2024, Eastman exported 3,465,452 kilograms of thiram, mainly to India and the Philippines. What is happening here is not the greening of chemistry, but the shifting of risks: substances that are considered too dangerous in Europe are not disappearing from the world, but from view.
