On Thursday 11 November the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee will release a report calling for urgent action to eradicate the practice of UK ships being sent to India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China and Turkey for disposal.
All large ships contain hazardous materials like asbestos, PCBs, waste oils and fuels and are currently broken in developing countries, where there is virtually no protection for either workers health or the environment. In many of these countries ships are simply beached and materials like asbestos are removed by workers without protective clothing. Gas torches are used for cutting metals even when fuel is present and PVC cables are burnt in the open air. Oils and liquid wastes drain directly into the sea.
Following the import of four rusting US military ships to Hartlepool and the subsequent government refusal to grant a licence for their disposal here, Greenpeace drew attention to the fact that Britain was guilty of regularly dumping similar ships on developing countries. On 23 March 2004 Greenpeace, Peter Mandelson and the GMB launched the START ship recycling in Britain campaign demanding that
1. The UK government supports the development of purpose-designed and built, state of the art ship recycling facilities in Britain.
2. The government brings in a policy to ensure that government-owned vessels will be entirely recycled within the EU at state of the art facilities.
3. The government should seek to persuade British ship owners to recycle their vessels at state of the art facilities within the EU and must urgently explore ways of compelling all EU ship owners to dispose of their ships at such facilities.
Greenpeace campaigner Mark Strutt said: "Greenpeace welcomes the Environment Committee's report and agrees with its conclusions that dismantling British ships in wholly inadequate conditions in Asia or Turkey is unacceptable and must be stopped as a matter of urgency."
He added: "We hope the government heeds the recommendations of the Committee and ensures that from now on all government-owned vessels are dismantled in the UK.
He concluded: "They should support the development of purpose designed, state of the art ship recycling facilities in the UK and put pressure on commercial ship owners to cease sending ships contaminated with hazardous materials like asbestos, PCB and waste oils to developing countries."
Further information
Greenpeace has broadcast quality footage and stills of ships being broken on the beaches in India, Pakistan and Turkey. To get copies or to arrange an interview contact Greenpeace UK press office on 020 7865 8255.
