Maersk to return shipments of suspected toxic waste back to Albania

An estimated 816 total metric tonnes of hazardous waste suspected to be in 100 containers transferred by two AP Moller-Maersk’s (Maersk) chartered ships will be returned to their country of origin, Albania, instead of being delivered to Thailand, according to international watchdog group Basel Action Network (BAN) last month. 

BAN said 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 organisations groundWork, Friends of the Earth in South Africa, and Ecological Alert and Recovery – Thailand (EARTH), raced to have the ships detained by transit countries. 

However, BAN alleged that 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,” the watchdog said. 

According to BAN, the lead ship, the Campton, is believed to have unloaded its 40 containers of suspected hazardous waste on 18 August in Singapore. 

On 19 August 19, these containers were listed as having completed transfer onto the Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. (publicly known as MSC) ship the Maria Saveria, scheduled to sail to Italy on 21 August where they will allegedly be transferred to another ship bound for Durres, Albania. 

“The second Maersk ship carrying suspected hazardous waste, the Maersk Candor, has been ‘dark’ since 9 August, a highly unusual length of time, and is due in Singapore on 24 August.” it siad. 

A Maersk spokesperson told Manifold Times that it noted media reports regarding Maersk’s two chartered vessels, Campton and Candor.

“Unfortunately, some information was incorrect. For example, according to a press release from an NGO dated 5 August, the vessels were heading from Albania to Thailand carrying hazardous waste – with a call in South Africa in their schedules,”  

“All this is incorrect; the vessels have never called Albania or South Africa, nor do they have any scheduled calls in Thailand.”

The spokesperson did not respond to questions if Campton unloaded containers of suspected hazardous waste in Singapore. 

She added: “Additionally, the NGO has made speculations about why Maersk Campton’s AIS tracker was turned off. With the current security situation in the waters around the Middle East region, it is not uncommon that some vessel owners may turn off their AIS due to security concerns.”

“Both Maersk Campton and Maersk Candor were carrying these containers on behalf of another shipping line. None of these containers have been declared to contain hazardous waste. Had they been declared to contain hazardous waste, Maersk would have refused to carry them.”

“In response to the speculation about the container contents, Maersk immediately coordinated with the relevant authorities and the shipping line responsible for these containers to arrange their return to Albania. All containers are now en route back.”

Photo credit: MarineTraffic / Ray Hensel
Published: 2 September, 2024