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Shipbreaking in OECD Appendix 2 - ItalyInspection of Simont, Napoli, Italy, carried out by COWI 10-11th October 2002. Simont, S.p.a. invited COWI to visit the Simont offices and yard in the Port of Naples. The site visit took place 10-11th October 2002. Simont is small family business that has operated in the demolition for a number of years. The new Simont is a privately owned company that has recently been converted from S.r.l. (?) to S.p.a. (stock company). The new Simont was formed in 1995 by Antonio Montagna who's family controls ownership. Auditing Procedure The site visit/auditing procedure was performed as a combination of forwarded questionnaire and detailed interview with Managing Director Antonio Montagna in combination with a site inspection. The Managing Director was quite open sharing information, invited several of his senior technical managers to join our interview, and provided documentation on request (e.g. manuals and procedures, letters to authorities). The forwarded questionnaire was complete during the visit. General impression of yard The company itself is eight permanently employed people. The company does not own the demolition yard, which belongs to the Port of Naples, and rents most of its heavy equipment. It invests mainly in the personal machinery and equipment and in the procedures for work. On a need basis employees are hired from a pool of regularly associated labour force. Simont operates by contractors on all major waste disposal issues. The contractors are often those already authorised by the Port authorities. The company requires authorisation/certificates from its contractors on waste management and disposal as this is a requirement from local authorities. The present capacity of Simont in terms of recycling is 70-80 thousand tonnes steel per year (turnover approx. 30 thousand tonnes). The company was apparently founded to demolish five Italian naval vessels and has demolished some 40 vessels in all. The capacity is governed by the length of the quay lease, the size of the dock and the depth of the harbour. Default is up to 220 m and 8 meters depth. If necessary, it was stated that additional quay can be leased (requires movement of some repair barges) and the break up of the keel part can be taken to a larger dock in the harbour (330 m). Since the company rents the quay length and pier area the "yard" is completely tidied up after each demolition. No permanent equipment is left at site once the lease expires. The company has several mobile cranes used for heavy loads. It was stated that all waste and recycled material is either containerised or moved by truck at finalisation. Assessment with regard to questionnaire General information The company has a defined designation of responsibilities regarding EHS, management and operation. It is moving into demolition of land based industries due to its experience in particular with asbestos removal. Policy information There is no publicly available environmental statement, green accounts or similar, but an internal health and safety statement, which also contain issues on environment is available. However, records on the base data for such statements are available due to the requirements from the authorities on health and safety, environment and fiscal issues. Materials management The recycled materials are transported to buyers as soon as economically feasible for profitability reasons, since Simont is payed relative to deliverance. Management of waste and wastewater The non-hazardous waste is collected and disposed on a regular basis during demolition. Hazardous waste is stored in containers and drums (supply of contractors) until the containers are full and collected or until the end of demolition, where all hazardous waste is removed. The regulatory approval of demolition is for each specific vessel and based on a vessel specific manual of procedures that requires all activities, incl. hazardous waste management to be completed by the finalisation of the demolition. Wastewater from asbestos removal incl. workers showers, is HEPA filtered and led to municipal sewage treatment system. Surface areas in the Port drain to the sea. New concrete on demolition pier apparently drain to land side. Bilge and oily water are collected by tank. Paint is left on the steel plates except where cut, since no sandblasting is allowed in the Port of Naples. This includes paints with TBT and/or lead which are consequently disposed of via the steel mill. Incidents, health and safety Gas free certificates are required and issued by the Port Chemical Officer ("Chimico") before commencement of work. The main focus on safety is in asbestos work and on lead in paints. A safety and risk assessment is part of the approval procedure of the local authorities. No major workers accidents have been reported during the seven years of operation. No major chemical or oil spills have been reported. The company has a boom for containment of the vessel. Usually, the health and safety officers (the local authority "ASL") inspect 1-3 times a year, but more often if much asbestos removal is carried out. Improvements needed The inspection did not take place during an actual demolition, and a case cannot be made regarding the organisation of the actual work. However, the manuals and procedures available apparently address all relevant issues regarding workers health and safety. The developed procedures have been driven by considerations for workers environment. Improvements in terms of environmental issues have not yet been addressed by local authorities and the screening carried out suggests the following issues should be addressed:
The company safety officer said they only rarely saw any PCB. When unknown potentially hazardous waste was discovered the Safety officer of the Port of Naples was called and the waste was disposed though the licensed companies according to his judgement.
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