Those who knew the long-ago days of wired telephones will no doubt remember this strange fashion from the 1980s, that of bigophones bearing the image of the cat Garfield. About forty years ago, off the coast of Brittany, a crate full of these handsets broke away from its container ship and washed up on the beaches of Finistère. In 2023 still, orangeish plastic debris and polluting electronic components continue to soil the coasts of Brittany. Who is guilty? We do not know. The offending shipowner may not even have been informed, as the economic damage for him was derisory. For him, but not for the coast…
Shipping has become an uncontrollable monster
This anecdote illustrates how maritime transport, the subject of this issue of “On the front”, has become an uncontrollable monster that no authority knows about and has no intention of bothering. Between 10,000 and 15,000 containers run aground each year around the world, but who cares? These are just drops of (dirty) water in an ocean of goods (11 billion tonnes per year transit by waterway). The port of Rotterdam (Netherlands) alone is bigger than Paris! It is through it that our old Europe gorges itself with mountains of objects, more or less useful, more or less durable, which have become synonymous with our Western way of life.
But just as we care little about the waste we produce, we know little or nothing about how these trinkets get to us. None of the pollution generated by heavy fuel oil, the dirtiest fuel in the world, which still supplies the tanks of container ships – without a penny of taxation – or by wrecks abandoned by rogue shipowners. Nothing yet of the policy of flags of convenience which makes it possible to send old rusty tubs to Bangladesh to be dismantled, in dantesque human and environmental conditions. The other side of our hyperconsumption is not pretty to contemplate. A word of advice: watch this documentary and choose second-hand items when you can!
Monday January 16 at 9 p.m. on France 5. On the front, presented by Hugo Clément (2022). 52 mins. (Available in replay on france.tv).
