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Belgian Minister demands ship to be decontaminated prior to export for scrapping

The first week of February 2003 the Belgian Minister of Environment Vera Dua was put in right by a court in Belgium in an attempt to get end-of-life vessel Silver Ray (now renamed Naxos 1) decontaminated prior to export to an Asian scrap country. Earlier the superintendent announced officially the vessel would leave the Antwerp harbour soon, without the demanded asbestos (et alii) decontamination. So the Belgian Environmental Minister went to court (injunction). The court considers the ship as hazardous waste (because of the asbestos presence) and ordered to chain the ship in the Antwerp harbour. This decision was taken because all indications confirm the owner is trying to export the end-of-life vessel in an illegal way to an Asian scrapping country. The court ordered that the Basel Regime Protocol should be followed. The ship can not leave Belgium without being decontaminated first. Greenpeace welcomes this new precedent of international importance.

Since October 2002 Greenpeace is visiting ships in harbours with the Greenpeace Toxic Patrol ship Argus. Specially designed shipbreaking playing cards (with names and photos of the Top 50 Ships for Scrap) and leaflets are distributed to crew members and captains asking them to contact the owner of the ship to clean up their vessels before breaking them in Asian countries, and to inform Greenpeace about potential ships for scrap. During these Toxic Patrols Greenpeace is following some cases with special attention, one of them being the Silver Ray (now Naxos 1) in Antwerp.

More on the Silver Ray (now Naxos 1)

See the list of ships visited by the Greenpeace Toxic Patrol