800.000 kilos of waste still floating around in the North Sea two years after MSC Zoe container accident

Two years after 342 containers fell overboard from the containership MSC Zoe, a quarter of the trash is still in the North Sea. This needs to be cleaned up as soon as possible, says Ewout van Galen of the North Sea Foundation. “The invisible waste in the sea is also harmful.”

To draw attention to the rubbish still floating around from the container accident, Organization De Noordzee published their campaign, “Would you help if you could?” The photo shows a man with a waste grab and a garbage bag in hand, looking over the North Sea. It is a symbol that in November 2019, the government stopped cleaning up the waste, which washed ashore on the Wadden Islands, among other places.

“We are happy with the effort that has been made and the 2.4 million kilos of waste that has been removed from the sea,” says van Galen. “But it cannot be the case that now only waste is cleaned up that happens to be washed ashore or ends up in fishing nets. The latter even results in dangerous situations. And plastic waste does not perish, so this problem won’t disappear by itself.”

Apart from preventing new container disasters, the North Sea Foundation wants the chapter on the MSC Zoe container disaster to be closed properly. “And that means: all the waste from the sea,” says van Galen.