Green shiprecycling pioneer Tom Peter Blankestijn has died at the age of 58.
The managing director of Rotterdam-based Sea2Cradle suffered an acute heart attack on 12 August.
Wouter Rozenveld, business partner and director operations of Sea2Cradle, informed colleagues in an email in which he said Blankestijn died despite efforts by ambulance and hospital staff to save him.
Henning Gramann, chief executive of Hamburg-based Green Ship Recycling Services, described Blankestijn as one of the “pioneers offering safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships on a commercial level, providing access and guidance to owners.”
He brought green shiprecycling to the public’s attention and pushed the industry towards “acting responsibly when it comes to end of life vessels.”
Nikos Mikelis, a key figure at the IMO in developing the Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (HKC) and currently a non-executive director of cash buyer GMS, said Blankestijn was one of the drivers of that convention.
He helped implement the HKC in first China and then Turkey and introduced a lot of owners to green recycling.
Much of Blankestijn’s career centred on green shiprecycling.
He promoted the practice while at P&O Nedlloyd and also when that company was taken over by AP Moller-Maersk and he became director of Maersk Ship Management Recycling.
He and Rozenweld set up Sea2Cradle in 2011 -- assisting owners, yards and brokers in the green recycling of ships, rigs and platforms -- after AP Moller-Maersk decided to withdraw from the green recycling of third party vessels.
Blankestijn is survived by his wife Machteld and daughter Roos.
