Adam Minter, Columnist

The Exxon Valdez's Eco-Friendly Afterlife

August 2, 2012 at 9:09 PM UTC

Adam Minter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the business of sports. He is the author, most recently, of “Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale."

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At some point before the weekend, the ship once known as the Exxon Valdez will come to its final resting place on an oil-stained beach in Alang, India, where it’ll be recycled in the world’s largest and most notorious shipbreaking yard.

Environmentalists inside and outside of India are outraged. The Valdez -- now renamed (I am not making this up) the Oriental Nicety -- like almost all ships scrapped in India, is filled with hazardous substances including asbestos and PCB-laden oils. Under Indian law and international treaties to which India is party, that should render it illegal to import. And yet, not only is it being imported, it’s one of hundreds of ships that are brought into Alang every year for recycling. Despite an order from the Indian Supreme Court on this week requiring that the Valdez be the last such ship imported into India, nobody -- except, perhaps, anti-shipbreaking activists outside of India -- believes that’s going to happen.