Thread: Thailand races to stop 100 cargo ships with toxic waste from reaching its shores

Thai authorities are racing to stop about 100 shipping containers allegedly filled with hazardous industrial waste from Albania reaching the nation’s ports.


Basel Action Network, a US-based non-profit that tracks toxic trade which previously alerted Malaysia to illegal e-waste shipments, last week informed Thailand that containers the organisation believes are filled with potentially harmful electric arc furnace dust were heading its way.


Adding to the alarm, one of the ships carrying the containers is no longer visible on maritime location tracking services. It went dark as it neared Cape Town late last month – after Basel Action Network said it alerted South African Authorities to the shipment.


Thai officials, after receiving the tip that the containers had been loaded onto ships in Albania in early July, say they are working with counterparts in Albania and Singapore, where the vessels are due to dock later this month, to stop the shipments.


The relevant government agencies “weren’t notified and haven’t given consent for these shipments,” Thailand’s Department of Industrial Works, which oversees international waste management, said in an email. “We are currently coordinating and monitoring to prevent this illegal traffic.”


Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries have seen an influx of rubbish from developed countries, from dirty plastic to industrial and electronic waste, which can be laced with toxins. Under the United Nations Basel Convention – a global pact signed on by many developed economies – countries need to give consent for waste headed their way.

The containers are aboard A.P. Moller-Maersk’s A/S’s Campton and Candor vessels, according to the Basel Action Network. Maersk confirmed two of its cargo ships are carrying containers that originated in Albania, booked by another shipping line.

None of the containers were declared to contain hazardous waste, otherwise Maersk would have declined to carry them, spokeswoman Summer Shi said in an email.


“Due to the speculation about the content of these containers, Maersk will hand the containers over to the shipping line which has booked and is responsible for the containers in question,” she said.


Bloomberg News couldn’t independently verify what the ships are carrying. The companies exporting and receiving these containers haven’t been identified.




Alarm raised


Basel Action Network, along with environment group Ecological Alert and Recovery-Thailand, alerted multiple countries when they learned that more than 800 tons of electric arc furnace dust was loaded onto ships in Albania and then transferred to Maersk container ships in Trieste, Italy. Shipping data available online show MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. ships were also involved in the transport, with Thailand as the final destination.


The furnace dust, which requires treatment, is a hazardous waste product that commonly comes from recycling scrap steel and contains toxic metal oxides like cadmium and chromium that are harmful to health and the environment.


Forty 20-foot containers were loaded onto the Contship Vow on July 4 at Albania’s Durres port, according to data available on MSC’s container tracking website. The containers were then transferred to the Maersk Campton at Trieste days later, and are due to be transferred again onto an MSC ship in Singapore on August 18, according to MSC’s tracking website.

They are scheduled to arrive at Thailand’s Laem Chabang port on August 20.


Meanwhile, another shipment of around 60 containers, which were originally loaded onto an MSC ship out of Albania, are also making their way to Singapore on the Maersk Candor.


The Campton stopped broadcasting its location on July 31. Maersk said the ship wasn’t scheduled to stop in South Africa, and that it’s not uncommon for vessels to turn off their location transmission due to security concerns. The ship is currently in the Indian Ocean on its way to Singapore, according to Maersk.


The Campton is expected to stop in Singapore August 14 and the Candor is due there August 22 – before the alleged furnace dust-filled containers head to Thailand.


MSC didn’t respond to a request for comment. Albanian authorities in charge of authorising waste exports didn’t respond to questions. Singapore’s port authority said it was unable to comment on the article at the time of publishing.


“The next days are crucial as Singapore and Thailand will have to act to stop the ships,” Jim Puckett, executive director of the Basel Action Network, said.


Albania should take back the containers and ensure that the waste isn’t re-exported to another unsuspecting destination, he added.


“It’s far too easy for traders and industry to just load up containers with materials that would otherwise cost a lot to deal with properly,” he said. “The generators of this waste and any accomplices in Thailand that agreed to accept this shipment should be prosecuted to deter future traders.”

Thailand races to stop 100 cargo ships with toxic waste from reaching its shores | South China Morning Post

My spidey senses tell me they will be paying a few Burmese officials to take these off their hands.

Thai ports on alert for container ship carrying hazardous industrial waste

Customs and industrial works officials are on alert for a cargo ship, carrying 100 containers loaded with about 816 tonnes of arc furnace dust, a hazardous form of industrial waste, which was reportedly heading for Thailand.


According to Jullapong Thaveesri, director-general of Industrial Works Department, Thailand has neither received any request for permission to import the dust into the country nor has an import permit been issued for the hazardous industrial waste.


He did disclose that, in 2022, the Thai government sent a note to the Albanian government, informing it that Thailand had banned the import of such waste.
Even though there is a report that the container ship, belonging to Maersk Campton, has already changed direction to an alternative destination, Jullapong said Thai officials remain vigilant and are monitoring the vessel’s progress closely.


Three non-profit NGOs, namely the Basel Action Network of the United States, Friends of the Earth of South Africa and EARTH Thailand, have been updating the Industrial Works Department on the movements of freighter.


Kriengkrai Chaisiriwongsuk, director of the Ports Authority of Thailand, said that the vessel is currently heading towards Singapore, but officials at Laem Chabang deep-sea port have been instructed to step up surveillance, to ensure that the cargo ship is not allowed to dock.

Thai ports on alert for container ship carrying hazardous in

Ship with suspected toxic waste, refused entry by Thailand, allowed to unload in Albania

A ship carrying possibly toxic industrial waste unloaded on Friday at an Albanian port, after being refused entry to Thailand and spending months at sea, authorities said.


The Turkish-flagged Moliva container ship -- believed to be carrying around a hundred containers filled with suspicious waste -- arrived in the waters near the port of Durres last week.


But it was not initially permitted to dock at the port. It had to wait until Friday before being allowed to unload.


The authorities took charge of "102 containers unloaded from the ship", the interior ministry said.


"The whole operation was carried out according to a strict plan ordered by the prosecutors in Durres."


The containers are being taken to a "secure location, away from populated areas, complying with all rigorous conditions for physical, environmental and sanitary safety", the ministry added.


Each step during the process was "recorded and documented, and the containers were checked, scanned and verified", it said.


The Durres prosecutor's office had launched an investigation into "smuggling of prohibited goods" and "abuse of power", in cooperation with the European Anti-Fraud Office OLAF.


On Monday it urged several public institutions to make their laboratories and experts available to analyse the contents of the containers.


The containers left Albania in early July, and according to documents from Albanian customs authorities at that time, its cargo consisted of industrial waste, specifically "iron oxide", whose export is authorised.


However, information passed on by a whistleblower to the Basel Action Network (BAN), a non-governmental organisation that combats the export of toxic waste to developing countries, suggests the cargo actually contains electric arc furnace dust (EAFD).


Classified as toxic waste, this dust must be stored and transported under very strict conditions.


The cargo was ultimately rejected by Thailand and returned to Albania after several months at sea, with stopovers and ship changes in various countries including Spain, Portugal, Italy and Turkey.


According to the paperwork on file, the waste comes from the Elbasan steel plant in central Albania.


The shipment of industrial waste from Western countries to be processed elsewhere in the developing world is a global business estimated to be worth between 44 billion and 70 billion euros ($48 billion to $77 billion) annually, according to environmental NGOs.

Ship with suspected toxic waste, refused entry by Thailand,

Good it hasn't entered illegally of course waste management a global issue.
Fortunately we have Sooty and Sweep to use the IDC or our very own doghouse.
For non members this is where the "cream" of TD dvelop intellectual discussions

Is Tata Steel not getting an 'environmentally friendly' electric arc furnace for Port Talbot, to replace the recently closed and 'environmentally unfriendly' coal furnaces?
Friendly my arse.

all furnaces get a buildup that has to be cleaned out - toxic likely because of heavy metal residues and fine particles

like a lot of furnace and precipitator dusts it probably is used as filler in the cement process

Originally Posted by david44

The Turkish-flagged Moliva container ship -- believed to be carrying around a hundred containers filled with suspicious waste -- arrived in the waters near the port of Durres last week.

what could possibly go wrong from here.....

And still no word on who in Thailand was going to get paid to take it and dump it.

Originally Posted by baldrick

all furnaces get a buildup that has to be cleaned out - toxic likely because of heavy metal residues and fine particles

like a lot of furnace and precipitator dusts it probably is used as filler in the cement process

A good way to dispose of it? Why do they ship it out? Why can't the original country do as you suggested
.bung it in some cement
Excuse my ignorance genuinely curious