Thai authorities said they were working with their counterparts in Albania and Singapore – where the ships are due to dock later this month – to stop the shipments after being tipped off that the containers had been loaded onto ships in Albania in early July.
The relevant government authorities “have not been notified and have not given their consent to these shipments,” Thailand’s Department of Industrial Works, which is responsible for international waste management, said in an email. “We are currently coordinating and monitoring to prevent this illegal traffic.”
Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries are experiencing an influx of garbage from developed countries, from dirty plastic to industrial and electronic waste, which may be contaminated with toxins. Under the United Nations Basel Convention – a global pact that many developed countries have signed up to – countries must give their consent to the waste that enters their countries.
The containers are on board AP Moller-Maersk A/S’s Campton and Candor vessels, according to the Basel Action Network. Maersk confirmed that two of its cargo ships are transporting containers from Albania that were booked by another shipping company.
None of the containers were declared as hazardous waste, otherwise Maersk would have refused the transport, spokeswoman Summer Shi said in an email.
“Due to speculation about the contents of these containers, Maersk will hand the containers over to the shipping company that booked and is responsible for the containers in question,” she said.
Bloomberg News could not independently verify what the ships are carrying. The companies exporting and receiving those containers have not been identified.
Alarm triggered
The Basel Action Network, together with environmental group Ecological Alert and Recovery-Thailand, alerted several countries when they learned that over 800 tonnes of arc furnace dust had been loaded onto ships in Albania and then transferred to Maersk container ships in Trieste, Italy. Shipping data available online shows that ships belonging to MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company SA were also involved in the transport, which had Thailand as its final destination.
The blast furnace dust to be treated is a hazardous waste product that is usually generated during the recycling of steel scrap and contains toxic metal oxides such as cadmium and chromium that are harmful to health and the environment.
According to information on MSC’s container tracking website, 40 20-foot containers were loaded onto the Contship Vow in the Albanian port of Durres on July 4. A few days later, the containers were then transferred to the Maersk Campton in Trieste and are scheduled to be transferred again to an MSC vessel in Singapore on August 18, according to MSC’s tracking website.
Their arrival at the Thai port of Laem Chabang is scheduled for August 20.
Meanwhile, another shipment of around 60 containers, which were originally loaded onto an MSC ship from Albania, is also on the Maersk Candor en route to Singapore.
The Campton stopped transmitting its location on July 31. Maersk said the ship was not scheduled to dock in South Africa and that it is not unusual for ships to turn off their location transmissions for safety reasons. According to Maersk, the ship is currently in the Indian Ocean en route to Singapore.
The Campton is expected to dock in Singapore on August 14 and the Candor on August 22 – before the containers, presumably filled with furnace dust, set off for Thailand.
MSC did not respond to a request for comment. Albanian authorities, which are responsible for approving waste exports, did not respond to questions. The Port Authority of Singapore said it was unable to comment at the time of publication.
“The next few days are crucial as Singapore and Thailand must act to stop the ships,” said Jim Puckett, executive director of the Basel Action Network.
Albania should take back the containers and ensure that the waste is not transported to another, unexpected destination, he added.
“It is far too easy for traders and industry to load containers with materials that would otherwise cost a lot of money to dispose of properly,” he said. “The producers of this waste and any accomplices in Thailand who agreed to accept this cargo should be prosecuted to deter future traders.”
