[CPEO-MEF] Basel Convention - ships are toxic wastes

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Source: Greenpeace International Posted by: Greenpeace International - 
archive October 29, 2004

Obsolete toxic ship dumping to be controlled

Geneva, Switzerland, 29 October 2004 - The global trade in toxic ships 
for scrap was dealt a serious blow today in Geneva when the Basel 
Convention affirmed that ships can be considered toxic waste under 
international law and that its 163 signatories must control the export 
of ships under the terms of the Convention. Greenpeace and Basel Action 
Network (BAN) described the decision as a major victory.

In 1995 the Basel Convention banned the export of hazardous wastes, 
including products for recycling from developed to developing countries. 
However, hazardous wastes contained as components in old ships such as 
asbestos, PCBs, toxic paints and fuel residues have continued to be sent 
to countries such as India, Turkey, Bangladesh and China Today, by 
explicitly declaring redundant ships as waste that ship-sized loop hole 
has been closed.

"This is a major step towards ensuring that the people and the 
environments of the world's ship breaking countries no longer have to 
bear the burden of the shipping industry's toxic trash," said Marietta 
Harjono of Greenpeace. "At a time when some 2,200 single hull oil 
tankers are due to be scrapped, the decision could not have come a day 
too soon. With today's decision we can work to avoid solving one 
environmental crisis by creating another in ship breaking countries."

Under the decision, the 163 signatories to the Basel Convention must now 
apply the Basel Convention to ships destined for breaking. They must 
prohibit exports without the consent of recipient countries, and must 
assure that shipbreaking is performed in an environmentally sound manner 
and minimize the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes.

The latter obligation can be expected to increase demands for 
decontamination of ships prior to export, which had been urged during 
the meeting by the shipbreaking countries of India, Bangladesh, and 
Turkey. It will also create new demand for the development of 'green' 
ship recycling capacity in developed countries.

Many in the shipping industry opposed the Basel Convention's involvement 
in this issue, hoping instead that the International Maritime 
Organization (IMO) would assume total control over end-of-life ships and 
impose far less rigorous standards. The United States, Japan, and 
representatives of the shipping industry fought in vain to block the 
decision.

In a last minute statement, the US which is not a Basel signatory, 
denounced the decision arguing that it does not believe end of life 
ships are waste. The US is currently seeking a home for its fleet of 
redundant naval 'ghost ships'.

The decision recognised the need to assist in the improvement of 
existing shipbreaking facilities in developing countries. It also 
recognised the work-taking place in the International Maritime 
Organization (IMO) and encouraged them to likewise seek to address some 
of the outstanding issues with respect to end-of-life ships in their own 
regime.

"The Basel Convention decided that while the IMO is welcome to help 
solve aspects of the problem in the future, Basel must begin to solve it 
today," said Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network (BAN). "They vowed 
to fulfil their existing obligations and prevent the cheap and dirty 
dumping of toxic ships on some of the poorest communities on earth - a 
situation that really is the shame of shipping, killing a person per 
day, either from the slow death by cancer, or from the violent death 
from gas explosions."

www.greenpeaceweb.org/shipbreak



--
Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org


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