Brussels, 3 October 2016 – The Circular Economy will
be high up on the agenda of an event organised by the European Parliament’s
S&D Group on Thursday 13 October 2016. The Platform’s Executive Director is
speaking on a panel addressing innovations in recycling of cars, aeroplanes and
ships.
At the event, Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella
will present the state-of-play on the EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy,
while rapporteur Simona Bonafé will comment on the discussions taking place in
the European Parliament on the waste package. Linkages to the energy and
climate agenda, the impact on jobs and investment, as well as the importance of
R&D and innovation will be addressed by a number of speakers during the
morning session. In the afternoon, the experts will explore the potential of
eco-design, reuse and remanufacturing and ways to close the loop for different
transport modes.
The NGO Shipbreaking Platform will present solutions
to the problems of today’s dirty and dangerous shipbreaking practices during
the afternoon session. A circular economy strives at zero pollution and zero
waste. Compared to cars and aviation, the shipping industry is a real laggard:
ships are still being built with hazardous materials; they burn low-quality
residual fuels that contain high amounts of black carbon, sulphur, ash and
heavy metals; ship paints that are in direct contact with the eco system are
still toxic; ship borne wastes continue to be dumped into the ocean; and last
but not least, the vast majority of large commercial end-of-life vessels
continue to be ramped up on intertidal beaches for breaking under extremely
dangerous conditions for the workers and without containment of the pollutants.
“When it comes to recycling, it is so obvious that
the shipping industry is still clinging on the old, linear model of ‘take,
make, use, dump’. No need to say that ship recycling as such is a highly sustainable
and necessary practice for a circular economy; however, the shipping industry
is guided by the maximum profit it can obtain when selling their old tonnage to
shipbreaking yards on the beaches of South Asia. State-of-the-art ship
recycling aiming at zero waste, zero pollution and 100% sustainability is
already available – we only need the right incentives to push ship owners
towards these yards. This is why the Platform advocates for a strong legal
framework without the loopholes created by non-compliant flags of convenience
and where accountability clearly lies with the shipping industry”, says
Patrizia Heidegger.
Source: NGO Shipbreaking Platform. 3 October 2016
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