COLUMN | Transporting hazardous cargo: are today's shippers taking on too much risk? [Grey Power]

Boxes stuffed with charcoal, for goodness sake! Can this low-value and potentially hazardous stuff not be fashioned locally? Why should my Bechstein concert grand, lovingly stowed in a container, be placed between a box of flammable charcoal and one of explosive chemicals, each cheaper than chips?

It’s not trade; it’s foolishness, but nobody, shipper or carrier, will confront the problem.

And the latest world nuisance is, of course, “nurdles,” which ought to be a word invented by Lewis Carroll, but have become a burden and curse to all who have to clear these plastic beads from waters and foreshores after they have been spilt.