Châtelaine, Switzerland -- Parties to the Basel
Convention have requested the Secretariat to develop implementation programmes
for sustainable ship recycling, where possible in collaboration with other
organizations such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the
International Labour Organization (ILO). The parties have recognised that ship
recycling States and the facilities within their jurisdiction may require
assistance in implementing the requirements of an international regime pertaining
to ship recycling. The Secretariat thus seeks to assist those Parties with ship
recycling industries in applying these controls through technical capacity
building activities.
To this end, the Secretariat developed the Global
Programme for Sustainable Ship Recycling in 2007 to encourage collaboration
between organizations, in particular with IMO and ILO, in facilitating
improvements in worker health and safety and environmental conditions in ship
recycling countries. In 2009, the Secretariat developed a concept for a Ship
Recycling Technology & Knowledge Transfer Workshop to strengthen the
regulatory, institutional, procedural and infrastructural capacity of
Pakistan’s Government and industry to fulfill the relevant aspects of the Basel
Convention in relation to ship recycling, particularly those dealing with the
downstream management of hazardous and other wastes, and the Hong Kong
International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of
Ships, 2009.
Feasibility study
Now, a feasibility study was finalized in April 2013
to identify cost-effective, environmentally sound alternatives to the
traditional beaching method of ship recycling.
The following activities
will form part of the study:
* a review of current ship recycling methods and
identification of cost effective, environmentally sound alternatives to
beaching. This work included consultations with those ship recycling facilities
employing environmentally sound alternatives and with shipowners who utilise
such facilities;
* a field mission to facilities employing alternative
methods of ship recycling to establish the parameters (operational,
infrastructural) of such methods; and
* development of a feasibility report providing:
models of alternative environmentally sound ship recycling operations;
identification of potential parties/industry partners and sites for the
establishment of such facilities; and a costing estimate for the establishment
and operation of such facilities.
This project was funded through a grant received from
the European Commission.
Establishing suitable
downstream infrastructure
This capacity building activity will focus on the
development of downstream hazardous waste management capacity in ship recycling
countries. While incremental steps are being taken to improve environmental and
worker health and safety standards in the industry, particularly at the
recycling facilities themselves, the ship recycling process cannot be
environmentally sound unless suitable downstream infrastructure for the
hazardous and other waste arising from ship recycling is established. For this
reason, this activity shall focus on the development of inventories of
hazardous waste in two pilot countries (Bangladesh and Pakistan) in the regions
where ship recycling takes place. Following the development of the inventories,
business cases will be developed to assist government and industry to establish
the requisite infrastructure. These will be replicable in other
regions/countries.
This project, which is designed to complement
capacity building activities to be undertaken by both IMO and UNIDO in South
Asia, will be completed by the end of 2013. The European Commission has
provided the funding for this project.
Source: recycling portal.
http://www.recyclingportal.eu/artikel/30523.shtml
No comments:
Post a Comment