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Seattle, USA, Bangkok, Thailand. 19 August 2024. An estimated 816 total metric tonnes of hazardous waste suspected to be in 100 containers transferred by two A.P. Moller-Maersk’s A/S chartered ships will be returned to their country of origin, Albania, instead of being delivered to Thailand, according to Maersk spokesperson Summer Shi. The U-turn is a major win for environmental justice organizations as well as the people of Thailand. In a letter to the shipping line, BAN has praised them for prompt action but is now calling for the return of 115 containers of similar waste, delivered to China by Maersk earlier this year.
The announcement by Maersk follows dramatic weeks of intrigue after the international watchdog group, the Basel Action Network (BAN), alerted Albania, several transit countries, and Thailand about the massive shipment of what is believed to be toxic steel furnace dust collected from pollution control filters.
“We applaud Maersk’s decision to return the suspected hazardous cargo. But the job is not done," said BAN Executive Director, Jim Puckett. “Earlier this year Maersk delivered a similar load of waste to China which must also come back. Further, the company needs to put measures in place to prevent their ships from moving hazardous waste, electronic waste, and plastic wastes to developing countries in the future.”
“We are very appreciative that Maersk has agreed to take these wastes back to Albania,” said EARTH’s Penchom Saetang. “Asia is far too often being victimized by global shipments of hazardous wastes, e-wastes and plastic wastes. We hope Maersk will work to take responsibility for doing their part in enforcing the Basel Convention.”
The 100 containers in question were transported in July from Albania to Trieste, Italy, where they were loaded onto two Maersk ships, the MAERSK CAMPTON and MAERSK CANDOR. As the two ships sailed towards Southeast Asia, BAN and its partners, the environmental justice organizations groundWork, Friends of the Earth in South Africa, and Ecological Alert and Recovery – Thailand (EARTH), sounded the alarm and raced against the clock to have the ships detained by transit countries. However, both ships went “dark” on parts of their journey by deactivating their AIS GPS transponders for periods far longer than what shipping experts have noted is normal, which may have been illegal.
Under the Basel Convention, the UN treaty that governs the trade in hazardous and other wastes, the transport of hazardous wastes without the approval of the exporting country (Albania), the transit countries, or the scheduled importing country (Thailand) is illegal waste trafficking. Albania was never informed about the export by the exporter, the transit states were not informed, and Thailand never received any notification. Due to this fact, Maersk is risking potential liability of criminal trafficking in waste.
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