Press Releases - ABLE

NEW WEBSITE PROVIDES ‘FACTS’ OVER SHIP RECYCLING PLANS
05/12/03

A new website aimed at giving people ‘facts rather than fiction—and sense rather than scaremongering’ has been launched by Able UK.

That is how the company’s Managing Director Peter Stephenson describes the aims of www.ableshiprecycling.com which is now on line with a huge range of information about all aspects of the company’s TERRC (Teesside Environmental Reclamation and Recycling Centre) facility and the issues surrounding the plans to recycle redundant US vessels.

Sections in the website include information about the history of the Graythorp yard, planning, waste management and environmental issues, the contract for the recycling of the US vessels, information on the contents of all the ships—and some of the many emails and letters the company has received over recent weeks.

In addition has links to a range of other sites, including Able’s own general site www.ableuk.com , English Nature, the Environment Agency, DEFRA, the US Maritime Administration (MARAD), Greenpeace and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

Explains Peter Stephenson “It’s clear that, whilst an ever increasing number of people realise that the public have been misled and manipulated by the propaganda tactics of Friends of the Earth and their allies, the campaign of misinformation and fear is still not over.

“You only have to look at the kind of ‘horror’ drawing on Friends of the Earth’s website, with a ship carrying the skull and crossbones, and wholly inaccurate claims about the vessels containing large amounts of toxic materials, to see that they have no interest in presenting any kind of factual or balanced view.

“We certainly have no intention of insulting the public’s intelligence in that kind of way. Our site is there for people to see the hard, true, accurate facts and figures—for example there is a breakdown of the contents of each of the vessels scheduled to come to TERRC for recycling which totally destroys the kind of outrageous claims which we have seen given prominence time and time again in some sections of the media.

“It also provides an opportunity to see the comments of some of the huge numbers of people who have contacted us over recent weeks to express their support for our efforts to ensure that redundant vessels can be recycled in a safe and environmentally-friendly manner in one of the best facilities in the world, providing work for local people.

“I hope that anyone who wants to get behind the horror stories and the headlines, the spin and scare tactics, takes a look at the site which we will, of course, update as developments take place.”

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