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Malta: salvage your reputation as maritime nation and become a world leader in clean ship breaking!

September 28th 2004, Balzan, Malta - Greenpeace today called the Maltese Government to bring an immediate end to Maltese flagged toxic ships being sent to Asia for breaking. In a press conference, Greenpeace detailed Malta's role in the scandal of toxic ship breaking in Asia which is devastating local environments and killing workers. Greenpeace called upon Malta to salvage its reputation as maritime nation and become a world leader in clean ship breaking.

In the report 'Playing Hide and Seek', Greenpeace shows that, after Panama, Malta is the second largest exporter of toxic ships to Asia for scrapping or breaking. Last year an estimated 34 ships flying the Maltese flag were sent for breaking to the beaches in Asia. None of the shipowners had taken measures to clean the ships before scrapping(1). During the Rainbow Warrior Tour in India, November 2003, Greenpeace found and documented one of these Maltese flagged ships, the St. Angelo, on the beach in Mumbai, being scrapped under inferior circumstances(2)

While Malta has adopted the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) voluntary guidelines for Shiprecycling, this has had little or no effect. Some 15 ships flying the Maltese flag have been sent to the South for breaking so far in 2004. These ships have been exported for breaking in breach of the Basel Convention, which has been developed to protect the South from becoming a dumping ground of toxic waste from the North(3).

"Malta cannot duck its moral responsibility as a flag state for the contamination and illness caused by the breaking of toxic ships in Asia. Taking leadership in promoting clean ship breaking is a win-win situation for Malta, not only can it help salvage its image as a responsible maritime nation, but it could spearhead a very profitable new business for its ship yards," said Marietta Harjono.

This week the Greenpeace delegation will be meeting Dr. Censu Galea, Minister for Competitiveness and Communication and Dr. George Pullicino, Minister for the Environment to discuss the role of Malta in shipbreaking.

We face a critical time, because according to the IMO and EU measures, 2200 single-hull ships are to be scrapped by 2010(4).This means a five to six fold increase in ships for scrap in 2010, and it is evident that such an expansion means an irreparable environmental and human health catastrophe. The EU and Malta take a lead and urgently set an example of how the world should deal with end-of-life ships.
"This is a cruel irony, because countries fear oil spills and damage to their environment from single hull tankers, there will be a global glut of ships to scrap, leading to a massive increase in coastal contamination in Asia. This is morally wrong, environmentally catastrophic and a double standard of the worst kind," said Erdem Vardar.

Notes:

(1) Names and other details of the Maltese end-of-life ships that have been sent to the breaking beaches in 2003 and 2004 can be found in the report Playing Hide and Seek, December 2003, including an edition on 2004 (appendix IV).

(2) For 'Ships for Scrap Report VI' and other shipbreaking reports go to Greenpeace shipbreaking Reports and Documents

(3) Having been signed by 162 countries and ratified by 159 of them, Basel Convention bans the export of toxic waste from OECD to non-OECD countries. The Convention has been implemented in EU legislation through the European Waste Shipment Regulation Regulation (EU WSR 259/93/EEC). For the full text of the Convention, please visit www.basel.int/text/con-e.htm

(4) This measure has been initiated after the notorious Prestige oil spill in November 2002. Prestige was a single-hull ship, which made it more vulnerable to spills after any possible accident. Following a request of the European Parliament the EU Commission (DG TREN) has then commissioned a report 'on the implications of the accelerated phase out scheme of single hull tankers proposed by the EU for the world ship scrapping and recycling industry'. This report 'Oil tanker phase out and the ship scrapping study' (June 2004) has just now become public. The new EU study shows that there is currently almost no green scrap capacity, not in the EU nor in the South.