WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 27830 [post_author] => 34 [post_date] => 2020-09-21 08:16:27 [post_date_gmt] => 2020-09-21 07:16:27 [post_content] =>

The role of the International Tank Container Organisation (ITCO) is to promote the use of tank containers for the movement of bulk liquid products. To do so, it highlights their efficiency and safety features but, of late, has also been looking at environmental and sustainability factors as it strives to help its members migrate cargoes from competing transport formats.

In particular, ITCO is seeking to promote the sustainability advantages of tank containers over flexitanks or flexibags, which carry around one million shipments of non-hazardous liquids each year, a significant proportion of which represent output from the chemical industry.

During a webinar held on 17 September – partly as a replacement for ITCO’s planned members’ meeting, which had to be cancelled as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic – representatives of the ITCO Sustainability Work Group, established in October 2019, brought members up to speed on developments, not least the launch of a video, available both in English and Mandarin, on the use of flexibags and their contribution to plastics waste.

GROWING AWARENESS

William Leigh-Pemberton, chair of ITCO’s Operators Division, highlighted the fact that what he called the “Blue Planet effect”, after the BBC documentary showing the extent of plastics pollution in the world’s oceans, had raised awareness of the issue and the significant damage being done to the global environment by single-use plastics. But, he said, the best way to reduce plastics waste is not to use it in the first place – after all, each piece of single-use plastics, whether it is a shopping bag or a flexitank, has to be manufactured for each and every load. And a flexitank is the equivalent of around 7,000 single-use plastics shopping bags.

The Covid-19 crisis has also highlighted the immense manual effort of shipping in flexitanks. Each bag has to be manufactured, in a closed environment, with people working in close proximity, then fitted into a freight container – probably by at least two people working together – and then filled with its cargo. It then has to be unloaded at the destination, the bag removed from the container and then transported for disposal. At each stage, people are involved.

In comparison, a tank container – which will make between 200 and 300 loaded movements during its lifetime – can be loaded and discharged by one person.

There are other issues surrounding the disposal of flexitanks. While users and producers stress that they are recyclable, they avoid the issue that they are not reusable. And, while some new recycling facilities are now opening up, that process also generates a further environmental impact. Furthermore, the recyclate produced in the process is less dense than virgin material, so more needs to be used to manufacture the next product or bag. In an environment of low oil prices, virgin material will often also be cheaper than recyclate. As a result, Leigh-Pemberton said, there is a lot of waste plastics stacking up at recycling facilities.

COST OF RECYCLING

In summary, Leigh-Pemberton said, it cannot be credibly claimed that flexibags are being recycled in large numbers. A 50 per cent recycling rate quoted by some is, he said, “highly optimistic”. The shipper has no visibility over what happens to the bag at the end of its journey and is reliant in effect on the good will of the receiver to take its environmental responsibilities seriously. In contrast, in the tank container sector operators take responsibility of the tank through the whole cycle, from acquisition to eventual recycling (after 20 years or more) and can point to the regular safety and environmental audits undertaken of all the players in the supply chain.

Safety is another issue with flexitanks, Leigh-Pemberton explained. There have been very many incidents of leakage, which always cause problems and, depending on where they happen, can be costly. If a ship has to be held up for cleaning because a flexibag has leaked in its hold, the costs can escalate rapidly.

Another safety issue is liquid surge during road transport. In the road tanker and tank container transport sectors, drivers receive thorough training on their driving behaviour to allow for the fact that the liquid in the tank behind them will surge within the tank as the vehicle accelerates, brakes or turns. By contrast, flexitanks are in standard freight containers and the driver may not even be aware of these factors – and is unlikely to have received the same sort of training. There are significant dangers, Leigh-Pemberton said, in this behaviour and ITCO will continue to highlight safety issues as well as the environmental impact.

However, he added, safety issues do not seem to change the behaviour of purchasing managers – unless they have had direct experience. Price remains the overriding consideration, although the up-front cost of using flexibags does not fully reflect the actual cost of their manufacturing, disposal and any necessary clean-up after a failure.

THE WAY FORWARD

Leigh-Pemberton remarked that all the major petrochemical companies have pledged to improve sustainability in their operations; programmes in that regard must include the transport of their products. In the real world, though, there must be a balance between ecological and economic considerations. Responsible behaviour comes at a cost – but, he added, “someone, somewhere is always paying for waste”. This should be acknowledged and accounted for.

Laurie Maclachlan, vice-president of ITCO, sought members’ opinion on the best way or ways forward to continue to raise the sustainability conversation among the tank container industry and its clients. One ideas has been to use a logo on a decal on all tanks, with the ‘Reduce, Re-use, Re-cycle’ mantra. After all, he said, a tank container is effectively an advertising hoarding travelling around the world. Mark Warner commented that, when Responsible Care was first introduced, the logistics industry spread the word among shippers by using its logo on their correspondence and invoices, which gave better visibility and expanded awareness among those who make the decisions; his comments were warmly welcomed.

Dean Lee of Stolt Tank Containers offered the idea of establishing an “ideas platform”, possibly on the ITCO website, where members could offer ideas and discuss them among themselves; Maclachlan confirmed that this was already in ITCO’s thinking (bearing in mind possible antitrust issues).

At the end of the well-attended webinar, all agreed that it should be seen just as a thought starter and that there is a need to continue the conversation and debate among members, and to spread the word among shippers.

www.itco.org

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