Major companies such as
H&M, Tetra Laval, ABB, Philips, Volvo and Volkswagen do not want to be
associated with substandard shipbreaking practices in South Asia and have asked
their forwarders – the shipping companies they use to transport their goods –
to adopt sustainable ship recycling policies.
In January, the NGO
Shipbreaking Platform published its annual list of global dumpers including 641
ships that were sold for substandard shipbreaking on the tidal beaches of
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Several of these ships were owned by companies
that the members of the Clean Shipping Network (CSN), a network of 32
multinationals, use to transport their products. MSC, Hanjin, MOL, Yang Ming,
Conti, G Bulk and Danaos were some of the ship owners that last year made a
deliberate choice to sell their end-of-life vessels to a substandard
shipbreaking yard for the sake of higher profits – a choice of profits at the
cost of people and the environment.
Report
on ship recycling policy asked
CSN members have now
reacted to this irresponsible practice with a statement condemning the breaking
of ships on tidal beaches. In the statement, shipping companies mentioned on
the Platform’s list of dumpers are asked to review their policies and practices
regarding the selling and recycling of end-of-life vessels. The shipping
companies are also asked to report on their ship recycling policy in the Clean
Shipping Index questionnaire, a tool used by leading international cargo owners
to evaluate the environmental performance of their providers of sea transports.
Eleven of the CSN
members even went one step further by sending a letter directly to their
business partners in the maritime industry stating that working with companies
that do not deal responsibly with their end-of-life fleet is unacceptable for
them. They warned that sustainable ship recycling is an issue they will
consider when signing agreements with shipping companies, and stated that poor
performance in the field of environment and social policies have consequences
for their business decisions.
Raised
awareness on impacts on environment
“We believe
collaboration is a must to bring about systematic change to the sea transport
industry. The Clean Shipping Network members use the procurement process to
enhance sustainable development and to raise awareness on how the shipping
industry impacts the environment”, says Sara Sköld, Director of the Clean
Shipping Index.
With increasing pressure
from also their customers, many ship owners will have to seriously consider
revising their ship recycling practices. Currently thirteen large shipping
companies follow sustainable ship recycling policies, including Royal Dutch
Boskalis, Canadian CSL Group and Singapore-based China Navigation Company. More
recently, German Hapag-Lloyd joined the group of ship owners that opt for ship
recycling off the beach. They did so on principle, even if they have to
compromise on their profits – just as the other progressive ship owners committed
to the proper end-of-life management of their fleet, they simply do not want to
be responsible for polluting sensitive coastal zones and putting workers lives
at risk during dirty and dangerous shipbreaking on tidal beaches.
Source: Hellenic shipping
news. 6 April 2015
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