Albania stops a ship suspected of harboring massive amounts of toxic waste from docking

Associated Press

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albanian officials say they prevented a ship suspected of transferring a huge amount of hazardous waste from docking at Tirana’s main port. The Seattle-based Basel Action Network nongovernmental organization, or BAN, which focuses on environmental issues, said it flagged the ship to authorities in August following a whistleblower’s note that it was suspected of carrying “an estimated 2,100 total metric tonnes of …  waste pollution control filter dust from the steel industry.” The Turkish-flagged ship was kept about a mile away from the port of Durres. The customs documentation stated the containers harbored iron oxide, according to local reports, which is not a banned material.