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Matthew Vella
The global trade in toxic ships for scrap was dealt a serious blow on Friday in Geneva after the Basel Convention confirmed that ships can be considered toxic waste under international law and that the Convention’s 163 signatories must control the export of ships under the terms of the Convention.
Environmental groups such as Greenpeace described the decision as a major victory, calling on Malta to take immediate action. Malta is currently the second largest exporter of end-of-life ships destined for breaking and scrapping to Indian and Bengali shipyards whether the breaking industry is a source of major pollution and health hazards.
“As a party to the Basel Convention and as the second largest country to send obsolete toxic ships for dismantling in developing countries, Malta needs now to comply with international laws,” Anne Muscat Scerri, Greenpeace Mediterranean campaigns director, said. “It has been hiding until now, ignoring the public health and environmental hazards that end-of-life vessels are causing under Maltese flag on the beaches of poorer countries.”
Greenpeace urged the Maltese Government to take immediate action to stop ship-owners from using its flag when dumping toxic ships on Asian beaches and ensure it complies with the decision of the Basel Convention, which includes notification and consent of the receiving country, minimization of hazardous waste on board ships and to ensure that ships are dismantled in an environmentally sound manner.
In 1995, the Basel Convention banned the export of hazardous wastes, including for recycling, from developed to developing countries. Hazardous wastes contained as components in old ships such as asbestos, PCBs, toxic paints and fuel residues were however continued to be sent to countries such as India, Turkey, Bangladesh and China.
“This is a major step towards ensuring that the people and the environments of the world’s shipbreaking countries should no longer have to bear the burden of the shipping industry's toxic trash,” said Marietta Harjono of Greenpeace.
Under the decision, the 163 Parties to the Convention must now apply Basel’s rules to ships destined for breaking. They must prohibit any exports of ships which do not have the consent of recipient countries, and must assure that shipbreaking is performed in an environmentally sound manner and minimize the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes.
The latter obligation can be expected to increase demands for decontamination of ships prior to export which had been urged during the meeting by the shipbreaking countries of India, Bangladesh, and Turkey. Greenpeace said it will also create new demand for the development of ‘green’ ship recycling capacity in developed countries.
Many in the shipping industry opposed the Basel Convention’s involvement in this issue, hoping instead that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) would assume total control over end-of-life ships and impose far less rigorous standards. The United States, Japan, and representatives of the shipping industry fought in vain to block the decision. In a last minute statement, the US, which is not a Basel signatory, denounced the decision arguing that it does not believe end-of-life ships are waste. The US is currently seeking a home for its fleet of redundant naval ‘ghost ships’.
matthew@newsworksltd.com
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