How to Recycle a Ship

When we recycle a built object, the hope is that we can remove materials that are dangerous to the environment, to human and animal exposure, and we can repurpose materials in the original–free them up to be safely used again. The objects we recycle can be as simple as metal bottle caps or as complex as an ocean-going tanker. With the increased complexity of built objects comes challenges for the recycling to be done in a way in which the environment is not harmed, human workers are engaged in fair and safe labor practices, and hazardous materials are sequestered away from contact with vulnerable environments. In complexity, opportunity, and danger, ocean-going ship recycling is the pinnacle. So how do we recycle a ship?

The Wrong Way

The wrong way to recycle an ocean-going ship is to run it up onto a beach, a ship-breaking yard, usually a remote beach somewhere in South Asia, and sell it for the price of the scrap steel to the smelters. Worker safety, environmental spilling of hazardous materials, and dealing with the remains of the ship that are not valuable enough to sell are the responsibility of someone else. Workers swarm over the ship with various metal cutting tools and cut as much of the steel as they can from the frame. There is no safety gear and no dealing with hazardous materials. The economies of these poor countries need the work. Most of the ship breaking beaches in the world are in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan; with China, that makes 94% of ship recycling in the world. 

The Right Way

International marine organizations, such as the UN’s IMO and various regional organizations that protect the marine environment, have been developing regulations and projects to move ship recycling in line with international standards for environmental and worker safety. The Hong Kong Convention is the accepted international standard for safe ship recycling. There is near-universal agreement that labor and environmental rights should exist for work carried out everywhere on the planet, and developed countries should not be able to buy their way out of responsible handling of waste. Three areas of ship recycling have been the focus of these international collaborative efforts: management of hazardous waste, environmental safety in ship breaking yards, and worker safety. 

At this time, various stakeholder nations and organizations are assisting the countries engaged in the industry to develop infrastructure, policy, and institutional guidelines to implement convention standards. Norway has recently agreed to fund the second stage of a project of this nature based in Bangladesh, called Safe and Environmentally Sound Ship Recycling in Bangladesh. Large-scale, country and regionally based programs that begin to develop the infrastructure related to worker safety, environmental protection, and hazardous waste handling will change the scale and type of this recycling work.

There still will be steel recycled and sent to the smelters for reuse. Under the new Hong Kong Conventions, it will be done so in a way that treats the workers and the environment with safety and respect.