PLATFORM NEWS – JOINT PUBLICATION OF A POSITION PAPER ON SHIP RECYCLING BY THE PLATFORM AND GREENPEACE EU

The NGO Shipbreaking Platform and Greenpeace EU, both based in Brussels, published today a joint position paper on ship recycling called “A principled and practical solution for ship recycling: NGO Shipbreaking Platform and Greenpeace Position on the European Commission Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on Ship Recycling (COM 2012/118)”. The position paper can be downloaded here and can also be found on our “European Campaign” web page: 

http://www.shipbreakingplatform.org/european-campaign/

Event at the EU Parliament

This position paper comes a week after an event about shipbreaking took place at the European Parliament. The event, titled “Shipbreaking: taking responsibility for hidden costs” and which was hosted by Carl Schlyter MEP and was co-organised by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, gathered a large crowd made of members of the European Parliament, the European Council, environmental activists, academics and industry representatives.

The event featured a panel discussion chaired by Mr Schlyter, who is the rapporteur to the Environment Committee of the European Parliament on the European Commission proposal for a ship recycling regulation. Amongst the panelists was Karl Falkenberg, director general of the DG Environment of the European Commission, who declared that EU-flagged ships (which are the only ships concerned by the Commission proposal in its current form) would not be allowed to be sold to ship recycling facilities using the beaching method. It was the first time that a representative from the Commission made a public statement against beaching as a possible method for recycling EU ships.

EU Commission proposal deemed illegal

Other panelists included Ludwig Krämer, environmental lawyer at ClientEarth, who explained that the Commission proposal in its current form is illegal. Mr Krämer said the proposal if adopted would effectively withdraw end-of-life ships from the EU Waste Shipment Regulation, whereas this is forbidden by law as the EU is bound by an international treaty known as the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, which defines end-of-life ships as hazardous wastes. The EU has also made the export of these ships from the EU to developing countries illegal by transposing what is known as the Ban Amendment into EU law through the same Waste Shipment Regulation.

Jim Puckett, executive director of Basel Action Network (BAN), explained that the EU had always been a champion of the Ban Amendment and said that this Commission proposal was worrying as it represents a big step backwards if indeed the EU intends to continue protecting developing countries from becoming the dumping sites for richer countries’ hazardous waste.

Finally, Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) and advocate at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh said that the EU Commission should make sure the waste present within EU-flagged ships is properly treated in the EU instead of being sent to developing countries like Bangladesh, who lack the proper facilities to effectively manage hazardous waste. She called on the European Commission to ban beaching for EU ships so that they would have to choose alternatives to developing countries using this method.

Harrowing documentary highlights fatal flaws of beaching

The event was also the occasion for Ralph Vituccio, an award-winning documentary film maker and Director of Media Development in Communications Design at Carnegie Mellon (USA), and his colleague Tom Clancey, a Los-Angeles-based cinematographer, to present the trailer of their upcoming documentary “The Shipbreakers”, filmed in the shipbreaking yards of Alang, India. The film makers shared with the audience their experience while filming in the yards, describing in detail the pollution they witnessed and the lack of proper equipment and infrastructure the shipbreaking workers have to deal with every day.

Source: Shipbreaking platform. 13 November 2012

http://www.shipbreakingplatform.org/platform-news-joint-publication-of-a-position-paper-on-ship-recycling-by-the-platform-and-greenpeace-eu/

Bangladesh Shipbreaking sector set to get patronage from govt

Technical assistance body formed

The Ministry of Industries (MoI) is going to extend help to the shipbreaking and recycling industry in the light of suggestions and rules of International Maritime Organization (IMO) and Basel Convention and by forming a Technical Assistance (TA) body.

The MoI Secretary in-charge Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah said in early January the government is going to form a TA committee to help the ship breakers as they abide by the international rules as well as rules in the gazette published by the government.

He said ship-breaking is currently following the government's Ship Breaking & Recycling Rules 2011. There were no particular laws for them before 2011.

The MoI Secretary said the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) has shown its interest to support the ship-breaking industry in accordance with international standard and law of the land.

He said although the agency was already helping, possible help on a big scale was still at the stage of negotiation with the ministry of industries.

Another MoI official said, "First we want to bring the shipbreaking industry under a particular rule and gradually the sector will be supported by the government and different international agencies as we want the industrialists to follow rules. We are marching ahead."

The source also said the government has recognised ship-breaking as an industry in the year 2011 and has published a gazette to regularise the industrialists under particular rules.

The Secretary said prior to the gazette there were no clear guidelines for the shipbreakers. He said the government has designed rules on safety, environment pollution, human health, disposal of toxic chemicals and other important issues.

The Bangladesh Ship Breaking & Recycling Rules 2011 has been formulated by following the rules and suggestions of the IMO, BASEL Convention and Hong Kong Convention.

After putting the Act in place, the industry ministry is trying its best to monitor and supervise the industry to create impetus to force the ship-breakers to maintain rules.

According to data available from the MoI, currently Bangladesh is breaking 26 per cent of the world's total scrapped ships, China 33 per cent, India 31 per cent and Pakistan 4-5 per cent.

Statistics shows that Bangladesh alone is dismantling more than one quarter of the world's total abandoned ships and gradually the industry is rising.

Hefjatur Rahman, president of the Bangladesh Ship Breakers Association (BSBA) said, "We have been informed that the government is going to support the ship-breaking industry and help us follow the shipbreaking rules."

The BSBA president said, "We want to operate under a system and it is good for us that the government has declared the sector as an industry and wants to bring it under a particular law."

He said once the environment and health-safety rules were materialised in the shipbreaking sector, the practice would continue and everybody would maintain those in their shipyards.

He urged the government's help in installing Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) in the shipyards, where they may treat the toxic and hazardous chemicals.

The BSBA president also brought to the government's attention the fact that the shipbreakers may join hands to help finance installation of the CETP as they felt it was not possible for the government alone to install the toxic chemical treatment plant.

He also said according to the BASEL and Hong Kong Convention, when the ship builders build ships, they are not allowed to use toxic chemicals. It has been in practice since 1984 and 1990 respectively.

He said after two to three years the scrapped ships would be toxicity-free and the toxicity stored during carrying toxic chemicals by the ships in their operative phase would be disposed of by using modern technology within a couple of years in the shipyards.

He said currently more than 20 years old ships are not allowed to be brought by the shipbreakers as per international rules.

Source: the financial express. By Shamsul Huda. 02 November 2012

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/index.php?ref=MjBfMTFfMDJfMTJfMV85MF8xNDg1Nzc=

MEDIA ALERT – NGOS CALL ON BULGARIA: DON’T BE AN EXPORTER OF TOXIC SHIPS

After escaping Germany, the NORTHERN VITALITY is now headed for Bulgaria   

Brussels, 23 October 2012 - In a letter sent last week to the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and to the Bulgarian Executive Environment Agency, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a global coalition of environmental, human rights and labour rights organisations, calls on Bulgaria to prevent the export to India of the toxic ship NORTHERN VITALITY, a 15-year-old containership that is likely to contain hazardous materials such as asbestos, refrigerants and mercury within its structure and electronic equipment; operational oily wastes such as sludge and oil residues; and stores including paint tins and heavy cleaning agents. Under European waste law it is illegal to export an end-of-life ship containing toxic materials to India.

“We expect Bulgaria to step up to the plate and do the right thing: refuse to be a toxic waste dumper and ban the export of the NORTHERN VITALITY to a developing country”, said Patrizia Heidegger, Executive Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform. “The ship should be sent to a facility in the EU or Turkey where she can be recycled in an environmentally sound and safe manner.”

The NORTHERN VITALITY left Germany on the 10 October after local authorities had held her for more than a month in the port of Wilhelmshaven, and is now about to enter the Mediterranean Sea. 

On 6 September, the Platform had alerted Germany and the European Commission that the ship’s departure from German waters had to be prevented and the EU Waste Shipment Regulation had to be enforced. 

The regulation prohibits the export of ships at end-of-life to developing countries, including India. Probably to evade public scrutiny, the then-owners of the NORTHERN VITALITY, the Norddeustche Vermögen Holding, sold her to another German company, Erste Roland Shipping, which stated that the ship would be repaired in Bulgaria. According to data acquired by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, the VITALITY should drop anchor in Varna around 4 November.

However, the Platform doubts that the repairs in Bulgaria will be little more than a halt for the ship on her way to the shipbreaking yards of South Asia. Two sister ships of the NORTHERN VITALITY, the NORTHERN DIGNITY and the NORTHERN FELICITY, which were reported as sold for breaking by the industry at the end of August, were both beached in Alang, where they now await their disastrous fate. Both ships’ names and flags changed during their last voyage.

Every year, about 1,000 ocean-going ships are broken to recycle steel and other items, but the majorities are simply left on the tidal beaches of Pakistan, Bangladesh and India where little or no consideration is given to proper management of the hazardous wastes they contain. Proper training and personal protection equipment is lacking. Accidents and lethal injuries remain common in the shipbreaking yards. Twelve workers died this year while working in the Alang yards. On 6 October, six workers were killed in a fire that broke onboard a beached ship, the Union Brave, a British-owned ship. For the first time, the Indian authorities arrested the shipbreaking yard owners.

In July, India’s Supreme Court held that all ships imported for breaking should be pre-cleaned of the hazardous wastes they contain.

“There is a need to end this transfer of toxic waste to India and other countries and it’s time that the countries responsible for creation of the waste take on the responsibility of cleaning and disposing off the same,” said Ritwick Dutta, a lawyer from New Delhi-based Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment and a member of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform. “It should be the shipowners, not the environment or the workers, who should pay for the management of end-of-life ships’ hazardous wastes.”

Last March, the European Commission presented a proposal for a regulation on ship recycling, deemed to bring an end to the export of European toxic ships to sub-standard facilities. The NGO Shipbreaking Platform is now working with the European Parliament and the European Council to strengthen the proposal.

CONTACT:

Patrizia Heidegger

Executive Director

NGO Shipbreaking Platform

patrizia@shipbreakingplatform.org

+32 2 6094 419

Source: Shipbreaking Platform. 23 October 2012

http://www.shipbreakingplatform.org/media-alert-ngos-call-on-bulgaria-dont-be-an-exporter-of-toxic-ships/

EU ship recycling proposal dubbed ‘illegal’

Europe: In Europe, the recently-introduced Commission Proposal on ship recycling includes serious ‘loopholes and legal contradictions’, NGO Shipbreaking Platform Executive Director Patrizia Heidegger has warned EU member states in an open letter. Her main concern is that, once enforced, this would ‘unilaterally remove’ end-of-life ships from the EU’s implementation of the Basel Convention.

The Hong Kong Convention on ship recycling is slated to be discussed during the environment ministers’ upcoming meeting on October 25. Mrs Heidegger hopes that bringing the regulatory breach to light will prevent ‘the illegal exercise of removing ships from Basel application’, hailing the latter as a ‘rightfully ratified’ convention on hazardous waste shipments.

In the open letter, the NGO Executive Director states: ‘Ever since its adoption in 1989, the EU has been a champion of the Basel Convention. Since 1994, the EU has been a champion of the Basel ban on the export of hazardous waste to developing countries.’ Noting that it was the EU that had ‘pushed the decision’ asserting that a ship could be a ship and a waste at the same time, Mrs Heidegger adds: ‘This proposal is not legally possible. It does not yet appear that the Commission understands the gravity of this illegal act.’

According to the NGO, the Commission is ‘conveniently ignoring’ the massive and sufficient capacity for green recycling in Europe, Mexico, Turkey, Canada and the USA. ‘Secondly, both regimes can operate simultaneously and will have to do so in any event, due to the fact that Hong Kong does not, for example, cover government-owned ships,’ Mrs Heidegger writes.

The ‘known loopholes’ wherein ship-owners can circumvent Basel rules can be closed ‘with further effort’, says the NGO. Therefore, European Commission decision-makers are urged not to support the proposal in its present form, but rather to ‘ensure that it is amended to remain in conformity with the binding legal provisions’ of the Basel Convention.

To read the entire open letter, visit:  www.bit.ly/VJ6GC4

Source: recycling international. 22 October 2012

http://www.recyclinginternational.com/recycling-news/6606/research-and-legislation/europe/eu-ship-recycling-proposal-dubbed-illegal

India will go on with ship-recycling, but bribes are likely to grow:

Indian ship recyclers have been forced to adhere to the Basel Convention regarding the import of hazardous wastes. Faced with a petition from Indian-based environmental organisation ToxicsWatch Alliance, on 30th July, India’s Supreme Court ruled that vessels arriving for recycling in Indian waters containing hazardous materials, such as asbestos or PCBs, must follow the Basel Convention on global movements of hazardous wastes. It means that India must first be notified as to all hazardous materials contained on board and must approve ship importation from all sources for scrapping, prior to the vessel’s arrival in India.

The Court decided that the former ‘Exxon Valdez’, a vessel whose arrival in Indian waters prompted the environmentalists to act, will be the last ship to arrive in India without the Basel rules being applied.

There is hard competition between Bangladesh and India recycling industry, India will keep its appetite on securing tonnage by trying to offer firm prices as the ruling of Supreme Court did not impose the closure of the scrap yards.

Industry experts don’t see any reasons for worrying as to the fate of the Indian recycling industry, and believe that the Supreme Court decision will result mostly, in growing number and volume of bribes to be paid to the above mentioned “all sources” empowered with the authority to supervise the deals.

Source: Maritime Bulletin. 6 August 2012

http://www.odin.tc/news/read.asp?articleID=1157

India invokes hazardous waste rules on its shipbreaking industry:

Indian ship recyclers have been forced to adhere to the Basel Convention regarding the import of hazardous wastes.

Faced with a petition from Indian-based environmental organisation ToxicsWatch Alliance, on 30th July, India’s Supreme Court ruled that vessels arriving for recycling in Indian waters containing hazardous materials, such as asbestos or PCBs, must follow the Basel Convention on global movements of hazardous wastes.

This ruling means that India can no longer accept ships from Europe, or the US. It also means that India must first be notified as to all hazardous materials contained on board and must approve ship importation from all sources for scrapping, prior to the vessel’s arrival in India, Basel Action Network said.

Previous to this decision and despite India being a Party to the Basel Convention, the country has ignored its Basel legal obligations with respect to ships, the organisation claimed.

“Finally, the Supreme Court in India has dragged its government to face the fact that India for a long time has been violating international law with respect to its uncontrolled imports of toxic ships for scrapping on its beaches. It will no longer be able to do so,” said Basel Action Network director Jim Puckett. “Hundreds of poor and desperate labourers have been killed or exposed to hazardous chemical, as a result of the disastrous shipbreaking practices on Indian beaches; hopefully this ruling will be the beginning of the end of the dark ages of ship recycling.”

Beaching operations in South Asia are known for environmental and human rights violations, where workers are routinely injured, crippled and killed from explosions and occupational exposure to hazardous substances.

Last weekend, a shipbreaking worker fell to his death from a ship beached in Bangladesh, the fifth death in Bangladesh this year. In 2011 alone, 28 workers were killed at Alang beach. The inquiries in such deaths are never made public.

However positive the Indian Supreme Court’s directives, the Court decided that the former ‘Exxon Valdez’, a vessel whose arrival in Indian waters prompted the environmentalists to act, will be the last ship to arrive in India without the Basel rules being applied.

It is unclear why the court exempted the vessel from its own orders. Indian authorities claimed that their inspection did not reveal any hazardous materials on board the vessel as cargo.

However, they could not determine what hazardous waste was contained in the ship’s structure, which most likely includes PCBs, asbestos, and residual fuels among many others, according to the NGO shipbreaking platform.

Source: tanker operator. 3 August 2012

http://www.tankeroperator.com/news/todisplaynews.asp?NewsID=3694

Shipbreaking: Hong Kong Convention to weaken Basel Convention, says NGO

Brussels -- At the most recent Basel Convention meeting in October 2011, 178 countries called for rapidly implementing a full ban on the export of toxic wastes of all kinds from developed to developing countries. However, the Basel meeting is pointedly at odds with the European Union’s recently proposed ship recycling regulation, which seeks to remove ships from existing legislation that forbids export of hazardous wastes from Europe to developing countries.

The proposed regulation attempts to substitute existing rules with far weaker ones under a separate International Maritime Organization regime known as the Hong Kong Convention. The NGO Shipbreaking Platform notes that the Hong Kong Convention is not in force and when it does become law can in no way be seen as a substitute for the Basel Convention. In October 2011, a majority of the Basel Parties agreed that the Hong Kong Convention does not provide an equivalent level of protection to especially developing countries as that provided by the Basel Convention.

“It is sadly ironic that at a time when major shipbreaking countries such as India and Bangladesh are saying we no longer wish to have our beaches become the dumping ground for toxic waste ships, the European Union seems ready to abandon its former export prohibition and say to these countries, well yes you do!” said Ingvild Jenssen, Director of the NGO Platform. “The European proposal is sadly an obvious move to give the shipping industry what they want most – agreement that the Basel Convention will not apply to them.”

Quelle: NGO Shipbreaking Platform

Source: Recycling Portal. 2 August 2012

http://www.recyclingportal.eu/artikel/29016.shtml

Upcoming Business Opportunities: Study on ship dismantling

Subject: Study on ship dismantling

Reference: RFPS-191/MAT

Date posted: 5 July 2012

In view of the fact that the official language used for the RFP will be English, this request for expression of interest is published in English only.

Du fait que la langue officielle de cette sollicitation sera l'anglais, cette demande d'expression d'intérêt est publiée uniquement en anglais.

Please note that only those firms considered qualified by the United Nations Office at Geneva for this project will be invited to participate.

Terms of Reference:

1. The United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) seeks Expressions of Interest (EOI) for a solicitation it intends to issue for the required services or goods described below.

2. Vendors interested in fulfilling the above requirements must be registered with UNOG and may wish to visit "UNOG Vendor Registration Process" for full registration information in order to be eligible to participate in any solicitation.

3. Required services or goods are the following:

The tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (the Basel Convention) adopted decision BC-10/17 on Environmentally sound dismantling of ships. In paragraph 7 of this decision, the Secretariat is requested, subject to the availability of funding, to continue its work and to develop further the programmes for sustainable ship recycling in conjunction with other bodies, in particular the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO). More specifically, under activity 31 of the work programme adopted by COP 10 (decision BC-10/27), the Secretariat is requested to, among other things, develop a feasibility study to identify cost-effective alternatives to the beaching method of ship recycling.

In accordance with the mandate given by its COP, the Secretariat of the Basel Convention works with key stakeholders to facilitate the environmentally sound management of ship recycling operations. In this regard, the Secretariat currently implements two projects as follows:

- The Secretariat is soon to finalize a case study through which (i) models of compliant ship recycling facilities are being elaborated in consideration of the requirements of the Basel Convention and the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships and their respective guidelines; and (ii) actions are being identified to be undertaken in the short, medium and long term at ship recycling facilities employing the beaching method to facilitate compliance with the two conventions.

- A second project or feasibility study for which the Secretariat seeks to retain the services of a contractor with experience in ship recycling-related issues. The feasibility study is to identify cost-effective alternatives to the traditional beaching method of ship recycling (this may include consideration of ‘green’ beaching methods which could be introduced or are currently employed by the industry).

Objective and Activities:

The objective of the feasibility study is to identify cost-effective, environmentally sound alternatives to the beaching method of ship recycling (which may include consideration of ‘green’ beaching methods which could be introduced or are currently employed by the industry).

The following activities will form part of the feasibility study:

i. Review of what constitutes environmentally sound management in the context of ship dismantling recycling (including consideration of the abovementioned case study undertaken by the Secretariat, the Hong Kong Convention, the Basel Convention Technical Guidelines for the Environmentally Sound Management of the Full and Partial Dismantling of Ships, guidelines produced by the IMO and ILO and other available resources);

ii. Review of current ship recycling methods and identification of cost effective, environmentally sound alternatives to beaching (or identification of ‘green’ beaching methods). This work should include consultations with those ship recycling facilities employing environmentally sound alternatives and with shipowners who utilize such facilities;

iii. A field mission to facilities employing alternative methods of ship recycling to establish the parameters (operational, infrastructural) of such methods; and

iv. Development of a feasibility report providing: models of alternative environmentally sound ship recycling operations (current and/or potential); identification of potentially interested parties/industry partners and sites for the establishment of such facilities; regulatory drivers for their establishment; and a costing estimate for the establishment and operation of such facilities.

4. Specific information (if any) (e.g.: pre-evaluation or pre-requisite criteria, certification, etc.):

     

The contractor must possess expertise and experience related to environmental and maritime-related matters, preferably with a proven track-record in undertaking ship dismantling/recycling-related projects

5. Please submit your response by returning the form "Expression of Interest Response Form" duly filled in by e-mail to tenders@unog.ch or by facsimile to +41(0)22 917 00 13. Responses must be received no later than 12:00 hours, Geneva time, on 16 July 2012. All responses will be kept strictly confidential.

6. Please note that this REOI does not constitute a solicitation. UNOG reserves the right to change or cancel this requirement at any time during the REOI process or the solicitation process. Please note that only those vendors considered as qualified by UNOG to provide the required services or goods will be invited to participate.

7. Tentative bid issuance date: 18 July 2012

8. Mandatory site visit date (if any) : n/a     

9. Tentative bid response date: 13 August 2012

10. Tentative contract award date: 17 September 2012

11. For system contracts, estimated annual volume: n/a

Source:

http://www.unog.ch/unog/website/unog.nsf/(httpBusinessOpps_en)/FDB5DD9E89C1C713C1257A33002D4FBC?OpenDocument&unid=D69BFF41202B9C7180256EED0060A4D5

Asbestos Laden Japan Built Vessel MV TIRAN To Enter Indian Waters:

New Delhi, June 29, 2012: Asbestos laden Japan built vessel MV TIRAN (ex Sirorat Naree, Gulf Glory, Ocean Fortress is likely to reach Indian waters on June 30, 2012 under Panama flag. Its last position as of June 27, 2012 was in Persian Gulf. Its last known port was Mina Saqr. Its last flag was Thailand when its registered owner was Precious Diamonds Pvt Ltd in 2009. Its IMO No is 8316302. This Cargo vessel was built in the year 1984 by Kanasashi Heavy Industries. Its length x breadth is 172 m X 27 m.

Asbestos is discovered in flange gaskets, coatings, pipe insulation and in accommodation areas. The classification societies are facing allegations of wrongly issuing Safety of Life at Sea (Solas) certificates for ships containing asbestos. Numerous cases of asbestos laden ships have come to light due to the laxity of Classification societies in accepting asbestos-free certificates or statements from shipyards for equipment installations without checking their accuracy.

Unlike USA, Japan is also a party to UN's Basel Convention on Transboundary of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. India is a party to the Convention whose Article 4-2 (d) requires it to” Ensure that the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes and other wastes is reduced to the minimum consistent with the environmentally sound and efficient management of such wastes, and is conducted in a manner which will protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects which may result from such movement.” As pre India’s Hazardous Waste Management Rules, 2008 trade in asbestos waste (dust and fibers) is banned. There is complete ban on asbestos use, trade and manufacturing in Japan.

A 15-member delegation of Japan Shipowners' Association had visited Alang ship breaking yard on February 14, 2012 and met Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on February 13 in order to make Alang's 170 recycling plots, spread over a 10 kilometre stretch fit for Japanese end-of-life ships to be dumped on Alang beach without any hassle for recycling. Japan outs its dead ships transferred as it commands 25-30 per cent share in global shipping business.

Unmindful of the fact that both the shipbreaking industry and environmental groups are opposed to International Maritime Organization (IMO)’s Hong Kong protocol for safe and environmentally-friendly recycling, formulated in 2009, the Japanese delegation campaigned for it to be adopted.

It is noteworthy that in July 2002, the IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) banned under Solas the installation of asbestos on new buildings and existing ships, with a few exceptions. A total ban was introduced on 1 January 2011. But it has come to light that asbestos in end-of-life vessels continues to be of major concern.

This poses serious risks to the health of crew members, ship surveyors and inspectors and persons working in shipbreaking yard facilities. The fact is that asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) were still being found in such places as fire blankets, joint and insulation materials, some sealants and friction material for brakes, as well as wall and ceiling coverings.

The surveyors are not properly trained to identify asbestos and where it is most likely to be found. The Directorate General of Shipping, Union Ministry of Shipping should note that declarations from the recycling shipyards are useless because they do not have control over the incoming hazardous materials.

ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA) demands that a high powered team of toxicologists should be asked to survey presence of asbestos on end-of-life ships that enters Indian waters and also those which are which used by Indian Navy to save workers and soldiers from exposure of carcinogenic fibers..

It has come to light that the Solas ban has been flouted. Of 140 vessels inspected, asbestos was discovered on 114. The checks covered ships delivered by yards since 1 January 2003, which meant they all fell under the Solas convention. This has come to public domain in a report of Tradewinds titled “Asbestos ‘failure’ by class societies” authored by Geoff Garfield.

Both Japan built vessel MV TIRAN and the controversial US ship, ex Exxon Valdez are laden with asbestos and PCBs.

Japan has hatched a plan to skirt the Basel Convention and liberalize and promote toxic waste trade among their global neighbors in Asia. One of the key components of this plan includes utilization of bilateral trade agreements. The manner in which these trade agreements are being used constitutes non-compliance with the Basel Convention.

Environmental health groups are opposed to Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) including one with countries that allows status quo to continue with regard to hazardous waste trade. The FTA with Japan is highly regressive as it is an effort to outwit the intent of the Basel Convention. Government of India is quite secretive about the agreements with Japanese government and EU. These groups have been campaigning against the India-EU FTA that entails such free trade in hazardous waste.

In a letter dated June 28, 2012 to Director, CBI, TWA has drawn the attention towards US flagged ship called Delaware Trader (IMO No. 8008929) as well and has sought his intervention to ensure that such ships are not allowed to enter Indian waters.

The letter argues that such movements of end-of-life vessels “must be halted to demonstrate that Indian law enforcement agencies are not subservient to US Ship Disposal Policy” in compliance with two of Supreme Court's orders of October 14, 2003 and September 6, 2007, the relevant part reads: "At the international Level, India should participate...with a clear mandate for the decontamination of ships of their hazardous substances such as asbestos, waste oil, gas and PCBs prior to exports to India for breaking" besides the May 3, 2012 order. In its order dated June 25, 2012, Supreme Court’s Vacation Bench of Justice HL Gokhle and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai has ordered that the matter of dead US ship Exxon Valdez should be placed before the appropriate Bench. The ship owners had tried their luck even before another Vacation Bench of Justice Deepak Verma and Justice Sudhanshu Jyoti Mukhopadhya on May 14. Both the benches have refused any relief to the owners of US hazardous dead vessel.

TWA’s letter demands that “CBI and other concerned agencies ought to coordinate their efforts to demonstrate sensitivity towards Indian environmental borders which is routinely being compromised so much so that since 1982 till date more than 5000 dead foreign ships have been dumped in India's fragile coastal environment of Alang beach.”

Source: countercurrents. By Toxics Watch Alliance. 29 June, 2012

http://www.countercurrents.org/twa290612.htm

Concern over ship dismantling practices prompts capacity building initiatives:

The benefits of ship dismantling, or recycling, derive from the materials and equipment comprising end-of-life ships, whose scrap steel, mechanical parts and other valuable equipment are recycled or refurbished for use in other industries. End-of-life ships also comprise of an array of hazardous materials – such as asbestos, PCB and waste oils – which can have serious implications for the environment and human health if not managed properly.

Concern has been expressed at the international level over the environmental, health and safety standards in this industry, particularly in those countries employing the beaching method of ship recycling.  Ship recycling commonly takes place in developing countries which tend to have a competitive advantage as they provide a pool of low cost labour, may have weaker environmental protection / worker health and safety regulations, and have national demand for the outputs of the activity (predominantly scrap steel). Poor enforcement of regulations relating to this activity means that problems with local environmental pollution are commonplace and incidents of worker injury and fatality are high. These concerns are compounded given the upward trend in recycling activity experienced in the past few years.

The Basel Convention has been involved in this issue for over a decade. This activity is of particular concern in the Basel sense as end-of-life ships comprise of an array of hazardous materials – such as asbestos, PCB and waste oils – which can have serious implications for the environment and human health if not managed properly. As ships destined for dismantling will rarely fly the flag of the state in which they are to be recycled, this activity can represent a transboundary movement of hazardous waste. However, given the global nature of the shipping industry and the practices associated with sending end-of-life ships for recycling, there has been difficulty in applying the provisions of the Basel Convention to ship recycling. Parties have recognised that Basel controls may often be circumvented for ships going for recycling. Thus at the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties in 2004, while Basel Parties recognised that ship may become waste as defined in Article 2 of the Basel Convention, they also invited the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to continue work aimed at the establishment of mandatory requirements to ensure the environmentally sound management of ship dismantling (decision VII/26 on Environmentally sound management of ship dismantling).

The Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Hong Kong, China, in May 2009. The Convention elaborates in its articles and regulations a control system for ship recycling, which includes obligations for flag States and shipowners and recycling States and recycling facilities. In May 2010, the seventh session of the Open-ended Working Group welcomed the adoption of the Hong Kong Convention (decision OEWG-VII/12 on Environmentally sound dismantling of ships). Subsequently, in October 2011, the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties encouraged parties to ratify the Convention to enable its early entry into force. COP 10 also acknowledged that the Basel Convention should continue to assist countries to apply the Basel Convention as it relates to ships (decision BC-10/17 on Environmentally sound dismantling of ships).

Relevant decisions and submissions

For a complete list of COP and OEWG decisions related to ship dismantling, including information received from Parties and others pursuant to the abovementioned decisions, please click here.

Waste from Ships

For information on ship wastes, specifically the relationship between the Basel Convention and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (the “MARPOL” Convention) please visit the Waste from ships section of the website.

Source: Basel Convention

http://www.basel.int/DNNAdmin/AllNews/tabid/2290/ctl/ArticleView/mid/7518/articleId/654/Concern-over-ship-dismantling-practices-prompts-capacity-building-initiatives.aspx
http://www.basel.int/Implementation/TechnicalAssistance/ShipDismantling/Overview/tabid/2762/Default.aspx

Follow-up on EJOLT REPORT 1 – shipbreaking:

While 4 ejolt reports are in the pipeline for publication in the coming 2 months, our work does not end with the publication of a report. We gave 15 copies of the EJOLT report containing the results of Federico Demaria’s research on the shipbreaking yards of Alang to the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a Brussels-based coalition of human rights, labour rights and environmental organisations working on the shipbreaking issue. The Platform is currently involved in the process of responding to the European Commission proposal on ship recycling, published in March 2012. They’ve been meeting with representatives from the European Parliament, the European Council (Danish presidency) and the Economic and Social Committee. Ingvild Jenssen, Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform: ‘the EJOLT report is proving very useful in that it sheds light on the situation in India.’

Meanwhile, Indian activist are doing their part of the struggle for environmental justice in the case of shipbreaking. According to the ToxicsWatch Alliance, 5924 end-of-life ships have been beached for dismantling in Alang. There are no data on the amount of hazardous wastes that has been dumped but many ships, like the ‘Oriental Nicety’, contain a lot of toxics. ToxicsWatch filed a Writ Petition (Civil) at the Supreme Court demanding that no end-of-life ship should be allowed without prior decontamination in the country of export as the same court ordered on October 14, 2003. Since May 3, the Supreme Court is handling the case.

And it’s not just dangers from toxics that the workers face. On May 2, a worker on the ship-breaking yard at Chittagong died when a heavy door crushed him. In the last 44 months, at least 38 workers died at shipbreaking yards. It should be clear that those who send the ships to these yards have some responsibility in all this. Only 1% of all ships are dismantled in Europe, 2% in the US but 44% are dismantled in India and 17% in Bangladesh. While 90% of international trade goes through ships, it is obvious who is bearing the heavy cost at the end of the lifecycle. This environmental justice needs to be addressed by implementing two interconnected steps:

1) It is technically feasible to have a proper if more expensive dismantling operation (as in Europe). There are in fact many guidelines (Basel Convention, 2002; IMO, 2003; ILO 2004). They are simply not implemented. Action through the Indian Supreme Court to implement them has to be supported.

2) Ship owners could pay a deposit (or guarantee) throughout the ship life to be spent for proper dismantling, established as a requirement for allowing entrance at any harbour. This could allow investments to take the activity off the beach because dry docks operations potentially offer better labour and environmental standards.

EJOLT is planning further steps to use the resources we developped in working towards these goals. As soon as we have new developments we will keep you updated.

Source: Ejolt. By Nick. 4 May 2012

http://www.ejolt.org/2012/05/follow-up-on-ejolt-report-1-shipbreaking/

Stop toxic ship mid-way: Indian Supreme Court

Taking a serious view of the allegations that an ailing and contaminated US ship ‘Oriental Nicety’ has entered Indian shores to get its last rites done at Gujarat’s shipbreaking grave yard, the Supreme Court has issued notices to the Union government and the shipping ministry to inform it about the steps they have taken to cut short her voyage midway.

According to a PIL filed by Research and Science Foundation, Oriental Nicety had few more names earlier such as Exxon Valdez, Exxon Mediterranean, Sea River Mediterranean, S/R Mediterranean, Mediterranean, and Dong Fang Ocean. She has been bought by Best Oasis Company, (a subsidiary of Priya Blue Industries Pvt Ltd) based in Bhavnagar, Gujarat.

Having apprehensions based on its past experiences relating to the authorities’ indifference to complying with norms laid down in the Basel Convention regarding the shipbreaking too, RSF lawyer Sanjay Parikh said on Friday that the ship is a trespasser as she “doesn’t have the sanction to berth” at any of the shipbreaking yards.

“Though it has not yet been allowed to berth in any of the ports, the ship, which is alleged to be contaminated, has entered Indian waters without taking proper steps for decontamination in the port of export,” Parikh said.

A bench headed by Justice Altamas Kabir noted on Friday that the copies of the RSF lawsuit have been handed over to the shipping ministry’s counsel TS Doabia and environment ministry’s lawyer Ashok Bhan. They have been directed to get the instructions from the ministries concerned and file replies.

India is a signatory to the Basel Convention that provides for ensuring minimization of the “generation of hazardous wastes in terms of quantity and hazardousness’’ and such toxic wastes are disposed “as close to the source of generation as possible”. In its judgment in October 2007, the top court had laid down some statutory conditions for allowing a damned ship to anchor in Indian waters. Before a ship arrives at the port, she should be armed with “proper consent” from the authority concerned or the state maritime board that she is hazardous-free and not carrying any radioactive substances.

She should be properly decontaminated by the ship owner prior to the breaking. This should be ensured by the state pollution control boards.

According to Toxicswatch, Oriental Nicety is the second ship that has her origin in the US and that is “outwitting Indian laws”.

A report from New Orleans on March 23 last said the `Exxon Valdez’ has been sold for scrap 23 years after causing the worst tanker spill in the US history, which led to new designs for oil carriers. Now called the `Oriental Nicety’, the vessel was sold for about $16 million, said a report of Maryland-based Global Marketing Systems Inc., the world’s biggest cash buyer of ships for demolition.

Source: DNA. By Rakesh Bhatnagar. 7 May 2012

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_stop-toxic-ship-mid-way-sc_1685362