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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE STARTECH ENVIRONMENTAL RECEIVES DOWNPAYMENT FOR NEW PLASMA CONVERTER FACILITY CHINA WILTON, CT, November 2, 2006 --/WORLD-WIRE/-- Startech Environmental Corporation (OTC BB: STHK), a fully reporting company, announced that it has received the 15% downpayment from GlobalTech Environmental Corporation, the Company's exclusive distributor for the Peoples Republic of China, to start the production of the 20,000 pound-per-day Plasma Converter System to be located in heavily-industrialized Northeast China. The downpayment does not include the $250,000 distributor-fee paid to the Company by GlobalTech. This first-of-its-kind Startech facility in China, scheduled to go on-line in 2007, will be processing hazardous PCBs (Polychlorinated Byphenyls) and POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants). "In 2050 every second human being will die from cancer due to contamination in food, water and the environment," according to the World Health Organization in talking about POPs. Steve Landa, Startech VP, said, "These are very nasty industrial materials. The Plasma Converter System destroys each and every one of these materials totally and irreversibly. The Converter is ideally suited to completely and safely destroy POPs, PCBs and other hazardous products no matter how persistent and no matter what the form or the chemical composition." Pat Quinn, GlobalTech Chief Executive Officer, said, "In addition to this first system on the ground in China for hazardous waste, we also have many other important projects in contract development for which we already have executed Letters of Intent and also Agreements in China. 
"Just on Waste-to-Alternative Fuels alone, we have a 100-TPD Tires and Refinery Tank Bottoms project in Northern China, an initial 100 TPD project for Black Coal in Mongolia, 250 TPD for Tires in Hunan Province, and 500 TPD for Tires in Nanjing. We also have waste-to-hydrogen projects in South Korea and hazardous waste projects in the Philippines."
Joseph F. Longo, Startech President, said, "With 20 percent of the world's population, and the challenges of its white-hot industrialization, China has put environmental stewardship and sustainable development very high on its list of priorities. China is a very important market for the Company; one we've been working on for the past five years." What Are POPs and Why Harmful The 8th International Forum on Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides was held in Sophia in late May 2005. The Forum brought together governments, UN agencies, industrial companies, international government organizations, non-government organizations and private sector stakeholders to develop and to implement a solution for the threat to the world of POPs, obsolete pesticides and hazardous chemical waste. An immediate focus is to establish Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) practices on cleaning up obsolete stockpiles of pesticides for Central European and the EECCA Countries (Eastern European countries, Caucasus and Central Asia). POPs means Persistent Organic Pollutants. They include materials such as:
They all share four properties:
He also said, "A growing body of scientific evidence indicates that exposure to very low doses of certain POPs -- which are among the most toxic substances ever created -- can lead to cancer, damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems, diseases of the immune system, reproductive disorders and interference with normal infant and child development. Another concern behind the initiative is the growing accumulation of unwanted and obsolete stockpiles of pesticides and toxic chemicals, particularly in developing countries. Dump sites and toxic drums from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s are now decaying and leaching chemicals into the soil and poisoning water resources, wildlife and people. These highly stable compounds can last for years or decades before breaking down. They circulate globally through a process known as the "grasshopper effect." POPs released in one part of the world can, through a repeated (and often seasonal) process of evaporation, deposit, evaporation, deposit, be transported through the atmosphere to regions far away from the original source. In addition, POPs concentrate in living organisms through another process called bioaccumulation. Though not soluble in water, POPs are readily absorbed in fatty tissue, where concentrations can become magnified up to 70,000 times the background levels. Fish, predatory birds, mammals and humans are high up the food chain and therefore absorb the greatest concentrations. When they travel, the POPs travel with them. As a result of these two processes, POPs can be found in people and animals living in regions such as the Arctic, thousands of kilometers from any major POP source. What are PCBs PCB is the abbreviation for a family of manufactured industrial products called polychlorinated biphenyls, and PCBs come in many forms. They are complex molecular products comprised principally of chlorine and carbon atoms. The major use of PCBs has been in industrial electric equipment especially in transformers, capacitors, voltage regulators and electromagnets. In operation, these devices produce undesirable heat and PCBs help to remove that heat while operating as an effective non-flammable dielectric (an electrical insulator). PCBs have also been used in hydraulic systems, as plasticizers and as additives in lubricants. Among PCBs' important industrial characteristics are its chemical stability and its resistance to degradation. It is these very robust characteristics that make PCBs so persistent and troublesome in the environment. PCBs are dangerous and harmful, and PCB concentrations have been found in water, soil, animals, plants and the food chain all over the world, even in the polar ice caps … a testament to the atmospheric transport of global contamination. Concentrations have also been detected in the fatty tissue of humans, animals and fish. PCB biomagnifications concentrations have even been found accumulated in "mother's milk. Why Are PCBs So Harmful PCBs are pernicious materials that enter the body through the lungs, digestive system and even through the skin, and tend to accumulate in the fatty tissues of the body. The World Wildlife Fund reports that, "PCBs interfere with many biological functions, including the immune system, the nervous system and several endocrine systems, and fetuses appear to be particularly vulnerable to these actions. Chronic low level PCB exposures can cause liver damage, reproductive abnormalities, immune suppression, neurological and endocrine system disorders, retarded infant development, and stunted intellectual function. About Startech - an Environment and Energy Company Startech Environmental is an environment and energy industry company engaged in the production and sale of its innovative, proprietary plasma processing equipment known as the Plasma Converter System™. The Plasma Converter System safely and economically destroys wastes, no matter how hazardous or lethal, and turns them into useful and valuable products. In doing so, the System protects the environment and helps to improve the public health and safety. The System achieves closed-loop elemental recycling to safely and irreversibly destroy Municipal Solid Waste, organics and inorganics, solids, liquids and gases, hazardous and non-hazardous waste, industrial by-products and also items such as "e-waste," medical waste, chemical industry waste and other specialty wastes while converting many of them into useful commodity products that can include metals and a synthesis-gas called Plasma Converted Gas (PCG)™. Among the many commercial uses for PCG, it can, for example, be used to produce "green power," and Alternative Fuels such as ethanol and other alcohol fuels, synthetic diesel fuels and also hydrogen for use and for sale. The Startech Plasma Converter is essentially a manufacturing system producing commodity products from feedstocks that were previously regarded as wastes. Startech regards all wastes, hazardous and non-hazardous, as valuable renewable resources. For further information, please visit www.startech.net CONTACT: Joseph F. Longo, President Startech Environmental Corp. 203-762-2499 OR Steve Landa (888) 807-9443, (203) 762-2499 EXT 7 sales@startech.net Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the Company's plans and expectations regarding the development and commercialization of its Plasma Converter™ technology. All forward-looking statements are subject to risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Factors that could cause such a difference include, without limitation, failure of the customer to obtain appropriate financing for the project, general risks associated with product development, manufacturing, rapid technological change and competition as well as other risks set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statement to reflect any change in the Company's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. |
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