Ma Jun, who I profiled in the New York Times yesterday, has compiled a database containing more than 97, 000 records of air, water, and solid hazardous waste violations by all kinds of companies operating in China.

FORBES: Prize Winner Takes on Global Supply Chains

For example, the facility at Pitsea in Britain, on the banks of the River Thames near London, accepts only solid municipal and commercial waste, because European law prohibits the mingling of liquid and solid waste, and of hazardous and non-hazardous waste.

ECONOMIST: The charms of modern landfills

While the Environmental Protection Agency would prefer to regulate the byproduct that contains arsenic, mercury and lead under stricter federal hazardous waste laws, the utility sector wants it to remain classified as a solid waste that the states now oversee.

FORBES: Coal Ash Spilling Into Obama and Romney Race