Muddy waters: Governing hazardous waste

A recent court decision has again raised the issue of how ships are governed by laws aimed at restricting or banning the international movement of hazardous wastes. While cargo residues were the subject of the case last week, other legal decisions have concerned ships as export items of hazardous waste, with one of the most recent involving an elderly LNG carrier that was believed to be planning to sail from the UK for recycling outside the European Union (EU).