Thailand Working to Prevent Toxic Waste Transport via Ships Effectively

Thai authorities are on high alert as they work to prevent approximately 100 shipping containers believed to be carrying hazardous industrial waste from Albania from reaching the country’s ports. The Basel Action Network, an American nonprofit that monitors the trade of toxic materials, tipped off Thailand to the containers filled with potentially harmful dust from arc furnaces. To make matters worse, one of the ships carrying the containers vanished from tracking services as it neared Cape Town, after the Basel Action Network alerted authorities in South Africa.

Thai officials are collaborating with counterparts in Albania and Singapore, where the ships are expected to dock, to intercept the shipments. The containers were loaded onto ships in Albania in early July without consent from the relevant government authorities, according to Thailand’s Department of Industrial Works. These unauthorized shipments are part of a larger issue in Southeast Asia, where developed countries are illegally dumping garbage, including industrial and electronic waste contaminated with toxins.

The containers, transported on two cargo ships operated by AP Moller-Maersk A/S, were not declared as hazardous waste. Maersk indicated that they would have refused the transport if hazardous materials had been properly disclosed. The Basel Action Network raised the alarm about the arc furnace dust being shipped from Albania, stressing the need for immediate action from Singapore and Thailand to intercept the vessels and prevent the hazardous waste from being offloaded in Thailand.

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