Luoyang Zhonggui High-Technology Co. in China’s Henan Province is a green energy company that produces polysilicon for solar panels. However, according to the Washington Post, the same company has been dumping silicon tetrachloride, the byproduct of polysilicon production. The dumping is reportedly occurring close to a primary school in a village near the factory. Silicon tetrachloride is a highly toxic substance that poses environmental hazards. According to Ren Bingyan, a professor at the School of Material Sciences at Hebei Industrial University,"The land where you dump or bury it will be infertile. No grass or trees will grow in the place. . . . It is like dynamite -- it is poisonous, it is polluting. Human beings can never touch it," 

In the developed world, Polysilicon companies spend millions to recycle silicon tetrachloride, but there’s such a severe shortage of polysilicon that the Chinese government appears to be willing to overlook the issue for now, the article reports. The price of polysilicon has risen from $20 per kilogram to $300 per kilogram in the past five years alone and in China polysicilon companies are seen as the new dot-coms.  

Luoyang Zhonggui High-Technology Co., secretary of the board, Wang Hailong stated that it is "impossible" to consider that the company would be dumping large amounts of waste into any residential area.  

Read the full story at The Washington Post

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