CMA CGM to no longer carry plastic waste on its ships
During the One Ocean Summit organized by Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and CEO of the CMA CGM Group, announced in a speech that the Group would no longer be transporting any plastic waste aboard its ships, according to the company's release.
With this landmark decision effective June 1, 2022, the CMA CGM Group, a world leader in shipping and logistics, continues to demonstrate its commitment to protecting the environment and conserving biodiversity.
In his address, Rodolphe Saadé also announced that the Group will host one of the two sites of the French Institute for Decarbonation at Tangram, the Group’s major innovation and training center due to open in Marseille in 2023.
Every year, around 10 million tons of plastic waste end up in the sea. Unless action is taken, that figure is set to triple over the next 20 years to reach 29 million tons per year, which will cause irreversible damage to marine ecosystems, fauna and flora.
The causes of this pollution include open-air storage and the absence of processing infrastructure for plastic waste that does not actively get recycled or reused.
With the decision that it will no longer transport plastic waste on board its ships, CMA CGM will prevent this type of waste from being exported to destinations where sorting, recycling or recovery cannot be assured.
The Group has thus decided to take practical steps where it has the operational capability to do so, heeding the urgent calls made by certain NGOs.
With this decision, the CMA CGM Group is stepping up its efforts to make conserving biodiversity one of the priorities of its CSR policy and to develop trade that is more responsible and fair for everyone and for the planet.
About CMA CGM
Led by Rodolphe Saadé, the CMA CGM Group, a global leader in shipping and logistics, serves more than 420 ports around the world on five continents. Backed by a fleet of 545 vessels, in 2020 the Group transported nearly 21 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) containers. The CMA CGM Group has set a target of carbon neutrality by 2050. An approach involving ongoing improvement which brings concrete results, with a decrease of 4% in the total CO₂ emissions of the Group in 2020. Present in 160 countries through its network of more than 400 offices and 750 warehouses, the Group employs more than 110,000 people worldwide, including 2,400 in Marseilles where its head office is located.
