Scrapping a ‘big fish’
full of poisons
G ro u n d – b re a k i n g f a c i l i t y t o c l e a n
s u b m a r i n e ’s c o n t a m i n a t e d s t e e l s c r a p A former Soviet navy submarine berthed in Amsterdam in the Netherlands for 18 years
is now being dismantled at Jansen Recycling Group’s yard in the Port of Rotterdam. Not
an easy task, as the 90m vessel contains asbestos and chromium-6, a cancer-causing
chemical. Contaminated steel scrap will be cleaned at a new EUR 80 million specialised
smelter in the north of the country which is expected to be operational this summer.
‘Trust me, that’s a lot of scrap laying
there,’ says Jansen Recycling’s direc-
tor of operations Peter Roest with
pride as he points at the rusty colos-
sus parked at the far end of a wide
quayside platform at Vlaardingen in
Rotterdam. ‘This submarine weighs
1 800 tonnes of which 300 is just the
batteries. The rest is mainly steel but
there’s also copper, nickel – you name
it.’
Stabilised by 5 metre high piles of
sand to prevent it from rolling onto its
side, the vessel is surrounded by a
secured fence: visitors to Jansen
Recycling’s ship and offshore installa-
tions dismantling facility get only a
glimpse from the outside of the
Well-equipped for heavy duty
Foxtrot B-80 is certainly not the Jansen Recycling Group’s first mega-job.
Thanks to its location alongside the Port of Rotterdam, the company has
wide experience in dismantling off-shore and on-shore structures such as oil
platforms and ships as well as windmills and railway bridges.
In 2013, the company caught a ‘big fish’ when it was commissioned to dis-
mantle and scrap the 140m Baltic Ace, a vessel that had leapt to interna-
tional prominence the year before when it sank in the North Sea en route
from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Kotka in Finland while carrying a load of 1
400 new cars.
Dismantling structures of this type requires a special approach in terms of
both logistics and equipment, such as cranes for unloading ships. Jansen’s
36 500 m2 Vlaardingen facility has it all: the yard boasts a 200m quay with
an open connection to the North Sea as well as a scrap shear with 1 000
tonnes of cutting force. The facility also specialises in the dismantling and
demolition of large items such as sea containers.
Becoming a specialist scrap recycler was a strategic decision made by
Jansen Recycling some years ago. The company wanted to step away from
an industry where everybody is chasing scrap. ‘More and more, we have
developed into a solutions provider rather a straightforward scrap mover,’
explains Jansen Recycling’s operational director Peter Roest.
A U t h o R Martijn Reintjes
Peter Roest: ‘The first thing to do
is safely remove the asbestos.’
46-47-48-49_submarinerecycling.indd 46 15-04-20 14:21
