Brussels — Ignoring
industry leaders and human rights and environmental organisations, ship owners
continue to profit from dangerous and dirty shipbreaking practices on South
Asian beaches in 2015, according to new data released today by the NGO
Shipbreaking Platform. 768 large ocean-going vessels were sold to the scrap
yards last year. 469 were broken on the beaches of India, Pakistan and
Bangladesh where shipbreaking yards do not provide fundamental labour rights,
ignore international waste trade law, and fail to respect international
environmental protection standards.
The worst dumper is
Idan Ofer: His shipping companies sold the highest number of vessels for
substandard breaking operations in 2015: nine in total, with six of them going
to Bangladesh, where conditions are known to be worst. Greek ship owners sold
the most ships to South Asian shipbreaking yards in 2015, with 87 ships in
total. Since 2009, Greek shipping companies have unceasingly topped the list of
owners that opt for dirty and dangerous shipbreaking. South Korean shipping
companies such as Hyundai and Hanjin; Taiwanese container giant Evergreen; and
Japanese companies including Mol, K-LineE and the Toyota owned Toyofuji sold
vessels for breaking in Bangladesh in clear contradiction of their own company
values and standards.
South Korean ship
owners sold 27 ships exclusively to South Asia, mostly to Bangladesh. Also
Japanes ship owners sold exclusively to South Asia, many to Bangladesh. German
shipping company Norddeutsche Vermögen sold three vessels to the beaches of
India and Bangladesh – the Northern Glance, the Northern Diversity and the
Northern Vitality. Polish government-owned Polsteam sold ships to Bangladesh
and Pakistan – and refused to take responsibility for their own actions
following an alert sent by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform. Worse, the Polish
government has likewise not acted.
“Despite of a lot
of international attention on the problems of shipbreaking on the beaches of South
Asia, the statistics for 2015 show that the vast majority of ship owners have
not changed their practice for the better. On the contrary, most have opted for
one of the worst shipbreaking destination in the world – Bangladesh, where
children are still illegally exploited to break ships manually on tidal
mudflats”, said Patrizia Heidegger, NGO Shipbreaking Platform Director.
One sign of hope is
a group of leading ship owners that have vowed to take responsibility for clean
and safe end-of-life management and demonstrate that alternatives are
available. The European Union is also expected to publish a list of approved
ship recycling facilities worldwide by the end of 2016. This will satisfy the
call from those that demand better practices, including investors such as
ABN-Amro and cargo owners such as H&M, Stora Enso and Phillips – none of
whom wish to be associated with polluting and harmful end-of-life management of
old ships. While, only vessels sailing under an EU flag will be legally obliged
to use an EU approved recycling facility, any ship owner can nevertheless opt
for an EU approved facility for its non-EU flagged ships on a voluntary basis.
The NGO Shipbreaking Platform therefore demands that shipping companies and
their investors only allow their vessels to go to yards listed on the EU list.
Moreover, governments of the world’s leading maritime nations, such as Greece
and Germany, must likewise take steps to ensure national use of the EU list.
Introducing a financial incentive based on the polluter pays principle would go
a far way in pushing irresponsible ship owners towards sustainable ship
recycling.
Source: recycling
portal. 04 February 2016
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