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INVESTIGATION: "Kurum" is hiding behind 'hazardous waste' exported from the port of Durrës

2024-08-23 17:31:00, Aktualitet CNA

INVESTIGATION: "Kurum" is hiding behind 'hazardous waste'

Documents and evidence provided by BIRN show that the company "Kurum International" is the origin of hundreds of tons of suspected hazardous waste that were exported from the port of Durrës to Thailand, spreading a global alarm.

By Besar Likmeta and Edmond Hoxhaj

On August 5, the Basel Action Network, an environmental organization based in the United States, raised the alarm that a giant 175,000-ton Maersk container ship disappeared from radar near Cape Town in Africa in late July. South, after a notification made by her to the local authorities.

Based on information provided by a whistleblower, Basel Action Network, BAN believes that the ship 'Maersk Campton' and a second container ship of the same line, 'Maersk Candor', loaded at the port of Durrës at the beginning of July about 100 containers of hazardous waste, which comes from the ash of electric metallurgical chimneys (EAFD) destined for Thailand.

According to BAN data, this is not the first shipment of hazardous waste from Albania to Aziza. The organization says a shipment of suspected similar waste was blocked earlier this year by the Customs Agency in Fangcheng, China.

Based on BAN's notification, the port authority has blocked the containers from Albania in Singapore and they are expected to return to Durrës in the coming months. But before they arrive in Durres and their contents are verified, they have produced a cacophony of political accusations, while the Durres Prosecutor's Office and the European Commission's Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF, have initiated investigations.

The prosecution has identified the company "Sokolaj" shpk, a mineral import-export company based in Durrës owned by citizen Gjovana Sokolaj as the exporter of the containers and the Turkish company "Kurum International" sh.a as the source of these products.

The data obtained by BIRN from the investigative file show that the recipient of these cargoes is the company GS Minerals Doo registered in Rijeka, Croatia, also owned by the Sokolaj family.

According to BAN's executive director, Jim Puckett, shipping containers to a non-OECD country such as Thailand, without proven recycling capacity, is questionable.

"Someone has gone to great lengths to hide the traces of this shipment," he told BIRN during a telephone conversation from his office in the city of Seattle in the US state of Washington.

The company "Kurum International" sh.a did not respond to BIRN's questions until the publication of this article, but in a statement distributed to the media on August 21, it denied having anything to do with the export of hazardous waste.

"Kurum International has never exported hazardous waste, so even in this case, this shipment in question was not exported by Kurum International," the company declared, without clarifying whether the product in question had left its factories.

Contrary to the data gathered from the investigation, the General Directorate of Customs stated through a press release that the waste export was not an export from Albania, but a transit from a company from Kosovo.

"The case cited by the media is not an export from Albania, but an international transit of the zinc concentrate product from Kosovo. So, the product is zinc concentrate originating from Kosovo with the sending/exporting company Apelbaum shpk," the customs declaration states.

The managers of the Kosovar company "Apfelbaum sh.pk", which Customs mistakenly referred to as "Apelbaum", told BIRN that they were only after the shipment to China through the port of Durrës, which according to them was zinc ore from the Trepce mine.

"We do not export metallurgical ash, but zinc mineral raw material without any problems since 2017. To wash themselves and draw attention from what is happening, the Customs in Albania hit us," complained Arten Bajrushi, director of "Apfelbaum" sh.pk

However, Puckett told BIRN that analysis of the shipment in China showed it contained more than 8% lead residue, which would classify it as waste.

In a response to BAN, the company AP Moller-Maersk emphasized that the containers originating from Albania were loaded in Trieste, after being transferred from another transport line.

"None of these containers have been declared to contain hazardous waste," container shipping company Maerks was quoted as saying. "If they had been declared hazardous waste, Maersk would have refused to transport them," she adds.

Kurum, the ash waste producer

The organization 'Basel Action Network' takes its name from the Basel Convention - officially known as the "Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal," an international treaty adopted on March 22, 1989 in Basel, Switzerland.

This convention aims to protect human health and the environment from the negative effects of hazardous waste, especially from their transport and disposal beyond the borders of a country.

The Basel Convention does not absolutely prohibit the export of hazardous waste from countries such as Albania, which is not a member of the EU or the OECD, but sets strict rules on how this waste can be exported. Albania, as a signatory country of the Basel Convention, must fulfill certain conditions to export this waste.

To export EAFD waste from Albania, a prior permit is needed from Thailand as the destination country, as well as transit countries to export hazardous waste. This permit must include information on the type and amount of waste, as well as the destination and method of their treatment or disposal. Export of hazardous waste can only take place if the waste will be managed safely in the country of destination, according to appropriate environmental and health standards.

The Turkish company "Kurum International" has been operating in the former Elbasan Metallurgical Plant since 1998 and is an important regional supplier of iron rods for construction. With hundreds of border workers, it is also an important employer for the city of Elbasan.

In order to reduce the pollution caused by the industry, since 2010, Kurum has installed a filter system for capturing ash residues from the treatment of chimney gases in the former Metallurgical Plant. According to the company's environmental self-monitoring statements, obtained by BIRN through the Right to Information Act, it still produces thousands of tons of hazardous waste chimney ash per year.

The waste from the gas cleaning filters has brought constant trouble for "Kurum", as it is classified as hazardous substance waste and is reported by it under the code 10 02 07* according to the current catalog of waste.

"These dusts that are captured by the system are bagged and can be exported or used locally. For this period, there was no evacuation of this waste, they were deposited in the relevant square and are a raw material for the production of paints since it is in a high % of ZnO," Kurum reported in June 2021.

The total amount of this waste produced for more than a decade by Kurum and its destination remains unknown, but only for a 3-month period, the company reported that it had accumulated 2500 tons of dust, which is otherwise declared as zinc oxide.

A part of this waste is recycled from 2022 by another Albanian-Chinese company based in the Metallurgical Combine in Bradashesh, called "Alliance Resources". But Alliance Resources has the capacity to process only a small amount of the huge waste produced by Kurum.

"We take zinc oxide from Kurum and process it in our line, where we take it from 20-25 percent to 55-60%, which is then allowed to be traded freely in the EU and other countries," Erdest told BIRN. Nushi, former administrator and employee of the company "Alliance Resource".

"Our capacities are limited and in 9 months we can process about 2500 tons. Kurum produces much larger quantities,” he added.

According to the verifications carried out by the Durrës Police, then referred to the Prosecutor's Office, an amount of 2800 tons of waste produced by Kurum was allegedly sold to the company "Sokolaj" sh.pk in October and November of 2023.

Gjovana Sokolaj testified to the police that the product with which the 102 containers were filled, which she considers to be iron oxide, was purchased by the company "Kurum" for a total value of 41 thousand dollars. Then, Sokolaj sold this quantity to its sister in Croatia, GS Minerals Doo for 141 thousand dollars, while the containers left the port of Durrës with the final destination Thailand on July 4, 2024.

But almost a month later, Sokolaj testifies that he received a disturbing notice from the container company.

"...informs me that the 102 containers that my company had launched will return to the port of Durrës, because the port of Singapore refuses to unload, as they suspect that they are filled with toxic substances," Sokolaj stated.

"I returned her email and told her that for the goods loaded in the container, which is iron oxide, the analyzes were done by Sokolaj sh.pk and Kurum sh.a and it does not result that there are toxic residues," she claimed .

Public records reviewed by BIRN however show that Sokolaj's company in Croatia, GS Minerals Doo, openly advertises its trade in EAFD hazardous waste as well as zinc oxides online.

In one of the advertisements, the company says that it has low-grade zinc concentrates ready at the port of Durrës and also has EAFD ash powder for sale.

Alongside the notice of the dust containing hazardous waste, she posted a photo of dozens of filled bags - some wet from the rain and some torn and with dust scattered outside, whose location could not be reached. to be verified by BIRN.

Gjovana Sokolaj did not respond to BIRN's request for comment until the publication of this article.

"Big bags"

On Thursday 15 August, work at the mineral terminal in the port of Durrës continued as normal as a heavy forklift moved stacks of chrome stored for years and waiting to be exported.

A maritime agent at the port of Durrës, who had knowledge of mineral exports, told BIRN on condition of anonymity that zinc waste from the "Kurum" company had been exported for recycling to Turkey in the period before the Covid 19 pandemic.

The agent explained that these wastes were deposited at the mineral terminal on the eastern quay of the port of Durrës and after being loaded into large white bags, known as 'big bags' by a loading-unloading company, they were exported to Turkey.

The maritime agent shared with BIRN photos of the cargo of white 'big bags' being loaded to be transported to cargo ships in 2018. He also explained that the ash was difficult to pack, because in transit of time, the heavy metals it contained were sedimented.

The agent also explained that the export of hazardous materials requires special conditions and has high costs, prompting companies to declare the goods as non-hazardous material.

Satellite images published on the Google Earth application in November 2023 show quantities of minerals similar to EAFD, packed in 'big bags' and deposited at the mineral terminal in the port of Durrës. The agent said these white bags were similar to those exported in 2018 originating from Kurum waste.

Asked by BIRN, the German company that manages the mineral terminal, EMS Albanian Port Operator shpk said that according to the documents it had, these bags did not contain chimney ash residues, while adding that it was cooperating with the authorities for the signaled shipment to Thailand.

"Based on our database and referring to the documents accompanying the cargoes, EMS APO Shpk has never stored or processed electric furnace dust (EAF dust) in the East Terminal during the last five years," said the terminal operator.

"We are aware of the allegations regarding the shipment of electric arc furnace dust (EAF dust)," the company added.

"We are cooperating fully with the authorities and have made available to them all relevant information and documents in our possession," she concluded.

Returning containers, half the job

The eastern terminal at the port of Durrës is managed through a 2013 concession by the German company EMS Shipping and Trading Gmbh, but the management of the terminal by this company has been called into question. The cause is the disagreements with the Durrës Port Authority, as well as the development by the Albanian government in cooperation with the investor from the United Arab Emirates, Muhamed Alabbar of the "Durrës Port Yachts and Marina" project, which envisages the construction and development of a new yacht port. apartments and hotels in place of the existing port.

The marina designed by Alabbar is separated only by a few concrete blocks surrounded by railings from the terminal where the minerals are deposited and from where the containers with suspected hazardous waste are reportedly filled and exported.

A source at the port of Durrës told BIRN that the EMS company and terminal has lost a large part of its business to the MBM port built by the "Kastrati" company in Porto Romano and now survives mainly through the rental income of minerals deposited in its terminal over the years by various companies, which have not yet found a buyer.

BAN's Jim Puckett shared with BIRN some photos that he said were provided by the whistleblower, showing the containers of the MSC company - which transported the suspected containers from Durrës to Trieste, the port where they were loaded onto Maersk ships.

Puckett told BIRN that there are many questions about how this waste got to this terminal and where it comes from, while stressing that the authorities need to shed light on the scale of this export and who is involved, both the generators and the brokers of the waste.

In a statement on August 14, Maersk announced that it was working to return the suspect containers to the vessels Maersk Compton and Maersk Candor in Albania.

"Given the speculation regarding the contents of these containers, the company is currently cooperating with the relevant authorities in Singapore and the shipping line on whose behalf we operate, to ensure that these containers are returned to Albania in the best possible way." possible," declared Maersk.

BAN appreciated the company's decision to return to Durrës the suspected containers loaded on board the 'Maersk Campton', but emphasized that returning the cargo was only half the job.

"We welcome Maersk's decision to return the suspected hazardous waste cargo. But the work is not done," Jim Puckett said in a press release, adding that "earlier this year, Maersk delivered a similar cargo of waste to China, which must also be returned."

"Furthermore, the company should put in place measures to prevent their ships from transporting hazardous waste, e-waste and plastic waste to developing countries in the future," he concluded.