Dutch to Clean Up Their Toxic Ship

October 17, 2006 - The asbestos-laden toxic ship Otapan returned to the Port of Amsterdam this week after being turned away by Turkish authorities when it arrived in that country for ship-breaking earlier this year.

According to an article in Reuters News Service, a partial clean-up of the Otapan will take place as it sits in the port of the Dutch capital city.

“We will have some companies take a look at the ship now, they will hand in proposals and then a firm will be chosen to reduce the asbestos to 1,000 kilos," said a spokeswoman for the Dutch Environment Ministry (DEM), adding that the new owners wanted the ship back in Turkey by next June.

Turkey originally rejected the ship this summer because the amount of asbestos found on the ship had been greatly underestimated by the Dutch.  "There was a lot more asbestos in the ship than the ship's documents suggested, about 56 tons instead of 1,000 kilos," said the DEM spokesperson.

Greenpeace and other environmental groups have been highly critical of the Dutch for sending their ships to developing countries for the removal of asbestos.  Greenpeace maintains that countries like Turkey and India, where many ships are sent for dismantling, are unable to properly handle large amounts of the toxic material in “an environmentally-friendly way.”

"The Netherlands should not export their environmental problems into less prosperous countries," said Greenpeace in a recently issued statement.