Malta urged to take green lead in ship scrapping

Greenpeace is calling on the EU to take urgent action to protect human health and the environment in the world's shipbreaking yards as the international ban on single-hull oil tankers enters into force tomorrow.

The ban is a threat to the beaches of Asia and Turkey as it includes no measures that would ensure clean and safe scrapping of these ships, the international environmental organisation said.

"Malta could take a leading role in correcting this problem," Anne Muscat Scerri, Greenpeace Mediterranean campaigns director, said. Malta plays a major role in shipbreaking, being the second biggest "dumper" of ships to Asia.

As an EU member state, it should ensure enforcement of European laws and correct its bad reputation, which was built up during the past two years, she said.

"Since there are many single-hull oil tankers registered in Malta it can play an important role in the EU," Ms Muscat Scerri said.

The EU ban on single-hull oil tankers threatens to dump thousands of toxic ships on Asian and Turkish beaches, where they are broken up in "appalling" conditions. Workers in India, China, Korea and Turkey break up European vessels with no protection from explosions, asbestos and a variety of toxic chemicals contained in the ships, Greenpeace said.

While the phasing out of single-hull tankers has been welcomed by Greenpeace, it is warning that the EU has failed to ensure that it also includes environmentally and socially responsible procedures for breaking the vessels.

The EU and the International Maritime Organisation moved to phase out single-hull oil tankers in the wake of the Erika and the Prestige disasters. According to a Greenpeace analysis, over 2,000 such tankers will be removed from the water and scrapped within five years. More than half of the tankers will need to be scrapped within the year. According to the analysis, some 334 tankers are either owned by European companies or registered in Europe.

Greenpeace urges EU institutions to take urgent action on EU-controlled single-hull oil tankers by enforcing the EU Waste Shipment Regulation and to fight the lack of transparency in shipping as well as to develop a definitive and consolidated list of single-hull oil tankers subject to phase-out regulations.

Greenpeace also demands an immediate commitment from EU transport ministers and the European Commission that the toxic burden of Europe's single-hull oil tankers will not end up on Asian beaches.