By K. Oanh Ha
Aug. 18, 2024 (Bloomberg) — A shipping container bound for Thailand that was allegedly carrying tonnes of hazardous industrial waste from Albania is set to be sent back to Europe after environmental groups warned that it was being illegally exported to Southeast Asia.
The AP Moller-Maersk ship carrying 40 containers of the waste is due to arrive in Singapore tomorrow, after which the suspect cargo will be sent back to Italy, according to the ocean cargo tracking website of MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, which is transporting the cargo to Europe.
Maersk is working with Singapore authorities and the shipping company contracted to transport the containers to ensure they are repatriated to Albania in the best possible way, spokesman Samar See said.
Mr See said 60 containers of suspected waste currently on board the Maersk Candle, due to arrive in Singapore later this month, would also be repatriated to Europe.
Authorities have been working to block the shipment since the Basel Action Network, a U.S. nonprofit that tracks trade in hazardous materials, notified the Thai government last week that a container believed to be full of potentially harmful electric furnace dust was heading to Thailand.
MSC and Albanian authorities did not respond to requests for comment, while Singaporean authorities said they were not yet able to comment. Maersk said the containers had not been declared as containing hazardous waste and would have rejected the transport if they had been. Bloomberg News could not independently verify what the vessel was carrying. The companies exporting and receiving the containers were not identified.
Maersk Campton container ship. Photo by Thierry Monasse/Getty Images
The Maersk Campton, which had switched off its position transmissions, is now sailing through the Straits of Malacca with its position displayed. Maersk said it had stopped transmitting its position as the ship approached Cape Town, South Africa, due to safety concerns in the area.
Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries are being bombarded with trash from developed countries that can be laced with toxins, from contaminated plastic to industrial and electronic waste. Under the UN Basel Convention, an international agreement signed by many developed countries, countries must agree on what trash enters their country.
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Thai authorities are still in contact with other foreign authorities to monitor the shipments, according to an official from the Ministry of Industry. Thailand plans to block and not allow the shipment of hazardous waste into the country.
The Basel Action Network, which has previously warned Malaysia about illegal e-waste shipments, called for the shipment to be sent back to Albania and for the companies involved to be punished.
“It is vital that governments meet their obligations under the provisions of the Basel Convention,” said Executive Secretary Jim Puckett. “It is clear that it is all too easy for traders and industry to stuff containers with materials that would cost a lot of money to properly dispose of, such as plastic waste, e-waste or toxic dust from steel mills.”
Basel Action Network, in collaboration with environmental group Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand, issued a multi-nation alert after learning that more than 800 tonnes of electric arc furnace dust was being transported on a Maersk and MSC container ship that had been loaded in July in the Albanian port of Durres and was due to reach its final destination in Thailand at the end of this month.
The furnace dust that requires treatment is a hazardous waste material that typically comes from the recycling of scrap steel and contains toxic metal oxides such as cadmium and chromium that are harmful to health and the environment.
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