In the coming days, the last pieces of the X-Press Pearl containership are likely to be removed from the Sri Lankan coastline over 21 months after it sank due to a massive fire.
Shanghai Salvage has spent the past few months dismantling the ship by splitting it in half and cleaning the ocean floor where it came to rest.
When it sank in May 2021, the ship carrying nitric acid and plastic pellets was responsible for the world’s largest maritime plastic spill. Sri Lanka has recently submitted a proposal to the International Maritime Organization to define plastic pellets as dangerous chemicals after as many as 70 billion pellets washed up on Sri Lanka’s western coast during the island nation’s biggest environmental disaster ever.
The Marine Environment Protection Agency (MEPA) of Sri Lanka has posted numerous photographs of the massive salvage operation. Two sections of the corroded hull were carried onto ships and transported to Singapore for recycling.
