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Turkey rejects toxic ship...

Greenpeace activists block ship containing toxic asbestos entering shipbreaking yard. Enlarge Image

Greenpeace activists have intercepted a European cargo vessel while it illegally attempted to enter a Turkish shipbreaking yard with dangerous toxic waste.

Greenpeace activists have intercepted a European cargo vessel while it illegally attempted to enter a Turkish shipbreaking yard with dangerous toxic waste.

Greenpeace activists block ship containing toxic asbestos entering shipbreaking yard. Enlarge Image

Ship ruled toxic waste

Today the highest court in the Netherlands ruled that a ship containing asbestos, heavy metals and other toxic material should be classified as toxic waste.

Ship being scrapped, Alang, Gujarat, India. Enlarge Image

See you in India...

The trade in toxic waste is outlawed in many countries. However this trade still continues away from the public gaze or under another name. We teamed up with internet activists to expose a common form of toxic waste trade.

Greenpeace climber above site of Larco nickel, million tons of toxic slag are dumped into the Mediterranean. Enlarge Image

Activists take action to stop dumping of industrial waste in Greece

A team of activists occupied the crane that fills an ocean-dumping barge with ferronickel wastes. Climbers went all the way to the top of the crane arm and paralysed the sea dumping operation.

Worker scrapping ship at Alang scrap yard Enlarge Image

US plans to dump toxic navy ships on poor countries

It's a logical premise - industrialised nations should not dump their waste on developing countries. Developing countries have enough problems, they don't need toxic and hazardous wastes dumped on them as well. But logic is not a word that is often associated with the US government these days.

Ship being scrapped, Alang, Gujarat, India. Enlarge Image

Nature reserve or scrap yard?

The little known west African state of Guinea Bissau, sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea, includes the Bijagos Archipelagos. The islands are home to a huge range of wildlife and are an internationally recognised wildlife reserve and important local fisheries. Sounds like a fabulous place to dump toxic ships, doesn't it?

Obsolete vessels from the US National Defense Reserve Fleet, or ghost fleet, anchored in the James River, near Norfol, VA. Thirteen of the vessels contain toxic materials and are slated to be towed to the UK for shipbreaking. Enlarge Image

Toxic ghost fleet

Two former US Navy ships are now crossing the Atlantic for scrapping in the UK. Contaminated with toxic waste, the failure of the US to clean them up at home has caused outrage in Europe. But have a closer look at the issue of shipbreaking: putting toxic vessels out of sight and out of mind is the rule rather than the exception -- and the recipients are usually developing countries.

A four year old scandal involving the MV Ulla, a vessel carrying toxic waste, ends with an environmental disaster outside Iskenderun port. The MV Ulla sank, burying 2000 tons of toxic waste into the sea. In June 2000, Greenpeace revealed the ship was carrying toxic ash, taken from three thermal plants in Spain. From that time on, Greenpeace's repeated demands to send the waste back to Spain had not been met. Enlarge Image

Spain's sinking hazardous ship

A four-year-old scandal involving the MV Ulla, a vessel carrying hazardous waste from Spain, finally came to a head on Monday outside the Turkish port of Iskenderun, where the vessel sank taking 2000 tons of hazardous waste with it.

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