NGOs call on the
Japanese owners to adopt a sustainable ship recycling policy for entire fleet
Brussels, 27 June
2014 – Belgian authorities released today the Japanese owned car-carrier that
has been sitting in detention at the port of Antwerp for nearly a month. After
having been alerted by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a coalition of environmental,
human rights and labour organisations, that the ship had been sold for
scrapping in India [1], the Flemish Environment Ministry seized the end-of-life
car carrier Global Spirit. The ship was today allowed to leave the port of
Antwerp for recycling in Turkey, a destination allowed under European waste law
[2].
“We applaud Belgium
for having stopped the Japanese ship from sailing to Alang, India, where the
vessel would have been broken under very hazardous conditions, an export which
would have been illegal under European law,” said Ingvild Jenssen, Policy
Advisor of the NGO Platform on Shipbreaking.
“On the shipbreaking beaches of Alang labour rights are poorly respected
and pollution laws are weak or not enforced. The conditions we see in India
would never be allowed in Europe or in Japan.”
According to the
European Union Waste Shipment Regulation, only if all hazardous materials, such
as asbestos, residue oils and toxic
paints, are removed from the Global Spirit can it be allowed to be exported to
South Asia. The Regulation was designed to prevent the environmental injustice
caused when rich countries export their toxic wastes to impoverished countries
that lack the technology and infrastructure to manage such wastes.
“We now call on the
Japanese owners of the ship, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Limited (MOL) and Nissan Car
Carriers (NCC), to find a sustainable solution for their entire fleet, not only
the Global Spirit for which they have been caught red-handed, and adopt a
company policy on ship recycling that will ensure the safe and green recycling
of all their ships off the beach,” said Ingvild Jenssen.
Last year the
Japanese ship owner MOL sold six end-of-life ships to South Asian shipbreakers
[3], prioritising the highest price for the ships and ignoring the harm done to
workers, local communities and the environment. The charterers of the Global
Spirit, Höegh Autoliners, who are also 20 percent shareholders in NCC, have
already adopted a sustainable ship recycling policy for their ships requiring
them to be broken ‘off the beach’. More and more progressive ship owners are
refusing to sell their end-of-life ships to substandard beach breaking yards
and the new EU Ship Recycling Regulation has set a clear standard for safer and
greener practices that effectively rules out the beaching practice [4].
“Also under the new
EU Ship Recycling Regulation the beach breaking yards of India will not be
accepted as the scrapping destination for European flagged ships. This is a
clear signal to ship owners that it is high time they shift from substandard
breaking to modern and sustainable recycling of their vessels,” said Ingvild
Jenssen.
CONTACT
Ingvild Jenssen
ingvild@shipbreakingplatform.org
+32 (0)2 6094 420
NOTES
[1] See NGO
Shipbreaking Platform press release Belgium Called Upon to Halt Export of Toxic
Ship – 4 June 2014
[2] In India,
Bangladesh and Pakistan ships are dismantled on tidal beaches whose soft sands
cannot support crucial safety measures such as heavy lifting or emergency
response equipment and which allow pollution to seep directly into the delicate
coastal zone environment. No country in
the developed world allows ships to be broken on their beaches. While
shipbreaking can be done in a safe and clean way with proper technologies and
infrastructure, most ship-owners choose to sell their ships for significantly
greater profit to substandard yards operating in countries without adequate
resources to provide safeguards and infrastructure to manage the hazardous
materials found within the ships’ structure.
On the South Asian shipbreaking beaches, vulnerable migrant workers,
many of them children, break apart massive and toxic ships by hand, often
without shoes, gloves, hard hats or masks to protect their lungs from asbestos,
and poison fumes. The International Labour Organization (ILO) considers
shipbreaking on beaches to be among the world’s most dangerous jobs.
[3] In 2013 Mitsui
O.S.K. Lines Limited (MOL) sold six ships for dismantling on the beaches of
South Asia:
1996 built wood
chip carrier Daio Robin (IMO 9136905) sold to Alang breakers, India
1991 built wood
chip carrier Ryu Yoh (IMO 8921444) sold to Alang breakers, India
1986 built roro
Cosmos Venture (IMO 8600143) sold to Alang breakers, India
1988 built roro
Solar Wing (IMO 8708244) sold to Alang breakers, India
1999 built tanker
Diamond Jasmine (IMO 9177143) sold to Alang breakers, India
1994 built bulker
Rubin (IMO 9064114) sold to Chittagong breakers, Bangladesh
[4] The NGO
Shipbreaking Platform has actively contributed to the legislative process which
in June 2013 ended with an agreed text for a new EU Regulation on Ship
Recycling. The Regulation entered into force 30 December 2013 and is expected
to be applicable within five years. The new rules will demand the use of
Inventories of Hazardous Materials for ships and has made clear that the
beaching method is considered neither safe nor environmentally sound. Ships
registered under the flag of an EU Member State will further only be allowed to
be dismantled in facilities that meet the requirements set out in the
Regulation – the European Commission will list these facilities. Currently, the
necessity of introducing a financial incentive to make sure that ship owners do
not simply flag out to a non-EU flag prior to selling the vessel for
dismantling in an attempt to circumvent the new EU law in being explored.
Source: NGO
Shipbreaking Platform.
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