Thailand races to stop cargo of toxic waste on MSC and Maersk ships

Thai authorities are racing to stop around 100 shipping containers allegedly filled with hazardous industrial waste from Albania arriving at the country’s ports.

Basel Action Network, a US-based nonprofit that tracks the toxics trade that early alerted Malaysia to illegal e-waste shipments, informed Thailand last week that containers the organization believes are filled with potentially harmful arc furnace dust electric they were heading for the road.

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

Thai officials, after receiving information that the containers were 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 “were not notified and did not consent to 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 trash 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 by many developed economies—countries must agree to waste heading their way.

The containers are on board the ships Campton and Candor of AP Moller-Maersk A/S, according to Basel Action Network. Maersk has confirmed that two of its cargo ships are carrying containers that came from Albania booked by another shipping company.

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

“Due to speculation about the contents of these containers, Maersk will hand over the containers to the shipping company that booked and is responsible for the containers in question,” she said.

Bloomberg News could not independently verify what the ships were carrying. The companies exporting and receiving these containers have not been identified.

Alarm triggered

Basel Action Network, together with the environmental group Ecological Alert and Recovery-Thailand, alerted several countries when they learned that more than 800 tons of electric arc furnace dust had been loaded onto ships in Albania and then transferred onto Maersk container ships from Trieste, Italy. Shipping data available online shows that MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company SA vessels were also involved in the shipment, with the final destination being Thailand.

Furnace dust, which requires treatment, is a hazardous waste that typically comes from steel scrap recycling and contains toxic metal oxides such as cadmium and chromium, which are harmful to health and the environment.

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

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

Meanwhile, another shipment of around 60 containers, which were initially loaded onto an MSC vessel from Albania, is also heading to Singapore on the Maersk Candor.

Campton stopped broadcasting his location on July 31st. Maersk said the ship was not scheduled to stop in South Africa and that it is not unusual for ships to stop transmitting their location due to security concerns. The ship is currently in the Indian Ocean en route to Singapore, according to Maersk.

The Campton is expected to stop in Singapore on August 14 and the Candor on August 22 – before the alleged containers full of kiln dust head to Thailand.

MSC did not respond to a request for comment. Albanian authorities in charge of authorizing waste exports did not respond to questions. The Port Authority of Singapore said it could not comment on the article at the time of publication.

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

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

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

Top photo: A motorcyclist rides past stacked shipping containers in the port of Bangkok. Photo credit: Taylor Weidman/Bloomberg

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