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.
Summary Greenpeace has been campaigning on the issue of shipbreaking for almost 10 years. The campaign has centred on scrapping yards in Bangladesh, Pakistan and in particular the yard in Alang, India. Alang is situated in Gujarat province, in the North West corner of India, 300 miles North of Mumbai on India's North West coast.
Peter Mandelson MP, Greenpeace and the GMB today (Tuesday 23rd March) called for a state of the art ship recycling industry to be developed in Britain and for the government to stop British naval ships being broken up on the beaches of Bangladesh and India.
The joint initiative known as 'START Ship Recycling' also called for government action at a European level to ensure that all EU ships are only decommissioned and recycled at specialist European shipyards.
Greenpeace publishes the first ever Zero Waste plan for the UK
The UK could be a rubbish-free zone according to a revolutionary new report. 'Zero Waste' by leading waste expert Robin Murray, explains how Britain could maximise recycling levels, change product design to eliminate waste and find innovative new uses for the rubbish we generate. The study also details the government policies and finance needed to make Zero Waste a reality.
An incinerator does not eliminate the need for landfill. A third of what is burnt ends up as ash which has concentrated levels of pollutants in it. A further 10 - 15% can not be burnt and goes directly to landfill. The rest of the material burnt is emitted through the chimney stack in the form of extremely poisonous gases and particles. The stack is designed to spread these pollutants over a wide area but many are re-concentrated by nature and enter the food chain. Incinerators make waste less visible, but they do not solve the problem. They transform waste into pollution.
This report details a practical strategy which local authorities can use to achieve maximum recycling rates and safely deal with residual waste. Reviewed and endorsed as practical and entirely achievable by Biffa Waste, the report illustrates possible options with examples of techniques and technology from around the world as well as in the UK.
