Brussels, 19 September 2016 - The NGO Shipbreaking
Platform welcomes onboard Legambiente, its first-ever Italian member
organization.
Legambiente is a non-profit association created in
1980 for the safeguard of the environment and for the promotion of sustainable
lifestyles, production systems and use of resources. It is the most widespread
environmental organization in Italy with over 115.000 members and over 2
million people involved in volunteer activities and campaigns. Legambiente's
strength is based on the work of 1.500 local groups and coordinated through 20
regional committees and a national headquarter in Rome.
“We strongly believe that our commitment to protect
the marine environment perfectly fits with the aim of the NGO Shipbreaking
Platform with whom we share the same objectives”, said Sebastiano Venneri,
Marine Conservation Officer of Legambiente. “Ship owners have a particular
responsibility to make sure that their ships are dismantled in a sustainable
way. Nevertheless, Italian-owned commercial vessels keep being broken on South
Asian beaches, polluting the environment and putting at risk workers’ safety.
It is our goal to stop the shameful practice of beaching and to advocate for
truly safe and environmentally sound ship recycling, involving citizens and the
industry sector in Italy”.
The demolition of ships is a hazardous endeavor that
requires adequate measures to protect the maritime environment, to ensure
environmentally safe and sound management of hazardous waste, and to guarantee
high health and safety standards for workers. Yet only a fraction of
decommissioned ships is handled in a safe and sustainable manner. More than 70%
of the end-of-life ships sold for dismantling today end up in South Asia, the
region that has served as the main destination for obsolete tonnage in the last
decades. The end-of-life vessels are run up on the tidal shores of India,
Bangladesh and Pakistan, where they are dismantled mainly manually by a migrant
work force. The beaching method is at the source of coastal pollution and
dangerous working conditions, while modern ship recycling facilities remain
unused for the sole purpose of maximizing profits for the shipping industry. In
the last seven years, around 90 Italian-owned ships have been dismantled on
South Asian beaches. The export of end-of-life vessels from Europe to
developing countries is illegal under European environmental law.
“The Platform is excited to join hands with
Legambiente and to raise concerns related to unsustainable shipbreaking
practices in Italy together. Dirty and dangerous shipbreaking has not yet
received the necessary attention in Italy, and Italian ship owners are yet to
pledge and implement clean and safe ship recycling policies", said
Patrizia Heidegger, Executive Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.
Source: NGO shipbreaking
platform. 19 September 2016
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