Design for recycling: a route to green ship recycling

Ship recycling at the end of a ship’s useful life aims to make the shipping industry more environmentally sustainable and is a major source of employment in developing countries. However, there are associated health, safety and environmental concerns. This study argues these concerns are due to inappropriate design and explains how ‘design for recycling’ can reduce the costs and risks of ship recycling.

The final stage of a ship’s life cycle — recycling — is essential for renewal of the shipping fleet. On average, 96% of the ship can be recycled or reused. The re-use of increasingly scarce materials also reduces the burden that shipping places on natural resources, improving the environmental sustainability of the industry.

Ship recycling also supports the developing economies of several countries, such as Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan and Turkey, which together represent 97% of the world’s ship recycling capacity. However, current recycling practices can have negative social and environmental impacts. Ships contain toxic materials, such as asbestos and heavy metals, which many ship recycling hubs do not have the infrastructure to treat, generating health and safety concerns for workers and contaminating the natural environment.

Awareness of the risks of ship recycling was first raised in the early 1990s, leading the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to adopt the Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships in 2009. More recently, the EU has published a Ship Recycling Regulation, which aims to reduce the negative impacts caused by recycling EU Member State-flagged ships.

The researchers of this paper argue that, to address the negative impacts of ship recycling properly, hazards must be considered during the design process. ‘Design for recycling’, a concept which involves identifying the recycling challenges during the design stage, has already been successfully applied in the automobile industry. In the context of ships, it could involve identifying hazards, such as toxic paints, or inefficiencies, such as oil tanks that must be manually cleaned before they can be recycled.

Their basic principle is for ship designers to ensure that recycling is as safe, efficient and environmentally friendly as possible. Not only would this prevent or reduce the use of materials, such as asbestos, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), heavy metals and oils (e.g. residual fuels), that could be a threat to workers and the local environment during dismantling, it would also reduce risk throughout the ship’s life-cycle, decreasing risks to builders and crew members.

The concept has three key objectives:

- providing an accurate inventory of hazardous materials,

- reducing or replacing hazardous materials, and

- making the ship easy to dismantle.

The latter could be achieved by using techniques such as standardisation of all parts and equipment on every ship to make it easier to identify the components of end of life ships for potential re-use, remanufacturing or recycling. Other techniques for ease of dismantling would be to include properly designed lifting supports for handling dismantled structural parts to minimise accidents due to falling components. The key objectives could be incorporated into design rules through IMO codes, for example.

However, there are concerns about the impact that implementing these changes would have on the costs of building and operating ships. To deal with these additional costs, the researchers suggest that the expense of creating inventories of hazardous materials should be borne by the ship owner (as in the ‘polluter pays’ principle). They also say costs should be calculated for different replacement materials and design changes in order to identify the most affordable options. The authors say the negative impacts of ship recycling presently undermine the industry’s contribution to sustainable development. With this paper, they describe a method, with techniques for efficient ship dismantling, to reduce these negative impacts by improving ship design and, ultimately, to achieve cost-effective green ship recycling.

Source: European Commission. Thematic Issue 55. June 2016. Ship Recycling: Reducing Human and Environmental Impacts

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/design_for_recycling_route_to_green_ship_recycling_55si12_en.pdf

Development and validation of three-step risk assessment method for ship recycling sector:

Highlights:

• Safe and environmentally friendly ship recycling as desired by Hong-Kong Convention.

• Development of pedagogic risk assessment method.

• Application of developed risk assessment method in the ship recycling yards.

Authors:

Karin Garmera, Hasse Sjöströma, Anand M. Hiremathb, Atit K. Tilwankarb, George Kinigalakisc, Shyam R. Asolekar

Abstract:

Disposal of end-of-life vessels in an environmentally sound and safe manner is a major challenge today. In the present study an attempt has been made to develop a three-step risk assessment method – which offers a systematic pedagogic approach for the “analysis team” comprising of production managers, safety officers, safety supervisors and the designated expert monitor to reduce risks and enhance safety at ship recycling yards. The three-step risk assessment was performed in 35 ship recycling yards through questionnaire surveys and door-to-door communication. Thus, 35 data sets from field personnel at the ship recycling yards, each data set with 8 risk indexes (4 risk indexes each, before and after implementing corrective actions) were collected. In addition, 9 data sets were collected to document the perceptions of experts. In all, a total of 44 data sets were collected and used to validate the risk assessment method. Validation of the three-step method, essentially addresses the differences (or similarities) in “perception of risk” by several health, safety and environment (HSE) managers who volunteered for the risk assessment exercise. In order to validate the risk assessment method, three validation protocols were developed. Consistency check on the data sets was also performed and it was found that the relationship was linear with the slope close to unity. The example illustrating the application of Three Step Method in identifying and minimizing risks provides clear understanding for the users of this method. Evidently, the three-step risk assessment method developed in this research appeared to give consistent results in a variety of scenarios of validation.

Keywords:

Ship recycling; Ship breaking; Risk assessment; End-of-life vessels; Occupational risk

Corresponding author at: Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India. Tel.: +91 22 2576 7867; fax: +91 22 2572 3480.

Source: science direct.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925753515000351

Asbestos Time Bomb in Bangladesh

Just a 3 minutes ride in a motorbike from the other side of Buriganga bridge from Dhaka city inside Basundhara River View project. Give a look left and you will find big sized new ships are being built. Hundreds of workers are busy with that. Thanks to the ship building industry, Bangladesh is building new ships fulfills domestic needs and exporting to Western countries. But what western countries are exporting to Bangladesh. The list is big and in many cases important for Bangladesh economy. But the list includes name asbestos. Really harmful, dangerous and damaging for the people of Bangladesh.

Where these asbestos come from, where these asbestos are being processed, where these asbestos are being used remain almost hidden here. But near the ship building yard on the other side of river Buriganga of Dhaka city OHSE research team has found a number of small cottage-like dens where asbestos are being processed. The place is out of general peoples sight, here a number of male and female work. They process asbestos, first burn the raw asbestoses into liquid then turn it into solid form in cases of different shapes. And finally supply the solid asbestos to the market. Here the raw forms of asbestoses are being processed said by an expert gives legal supports to the importers of asbestos.

Most of the cases asbestos comes from abroad as an imported good are directly going to the local market for multiple uses.  Bangladesh is the 31st top country in the world in the line of consuming asbestos. Canada, Russia, South Africa, Mozambique, Turkey, Austria, Brazil, USA, Australia, and Oman are listed as exporters of asbestos and asbestos contained materials to Bangladesh.

Its annual consumption is on an average 8,500 tones involving about 1.5 million dollar. The use of domestic consumption is growing side by side increase import of raw asbestos and asbestos contained finished materials inside to country on recent years with having little public information and knowledge as well as legal instruments to take a controlling measures of it.

Furthermore, in Bangladesh asbestos is recovered by manual crushing and then re-crusted, or-re-formed, for re-use. Asbestos is still not necessarily regulated as hazardous waste in Bangladesh. Asbestos is being used in many purposes.  Besides founding asbestos and asbestos contained materials from the source of ship breaking sector located in Chittagong, in Bangladesh many products contains asbestos are selling and baying at local marker without knowing its definite consequence at personal life in long run.

Almost every family in Bangladesh consumes some sort of asbestos. Electric Ceiling fans using inside the house contain with asbestos. The body of the fans are made of asbestos and these are made at the place of the other side of Buriganga, mentioned above. While the research team talked to Masum Hossain, a broker there, in the guise of traders, he was ready to supply as much as needed.

In the area women were found working directly with asbestoses. Sacks of asbestoses kept here and there. While wanted to touch, one of the women stopped, saying, don’t touch, it would cause you harm. Asked, how do they work with such a thing, she said, we have no problem.  These women have been working here for 2/3 years. None found, who worked there for more than 5 years.  This is common; nobody wants to work for long period. As asked none of the workers said, they suffer any physical constraints for this.

Source: Asia Monitor Resource Centre

http://www.amrc.org.hk/node/1158

Report Examines Dutch Banks’ Approach to Shipbreaking:

The NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a global coalition of human rights, labor rights and environmental organizations working to prevent dangerous and dirty ship recycling practices worldwide, has made available a report titled Case study: Dutch banking groups and shipbreaking on its website. This is the English version of a report initially published by the Dutch consultancy Profundo, on behalf of the Eerlijke Bankwijzer (Fair Bank Guide), an initiative that aims at providing information to the public on how banks invest their funds, and FNV Mondiaal, a trade union organization.

The report highlights the dangerous working conditions in the shipbreaking yards in South Asia (India, Bangladesh and Pakistan) and remaining challenges in ship recycling yards in China, and calls on Dutch banking groups and asset managers to pay more attention to shipbreaking, particularly when screening shipping companies in which they choose to invest.

The report thus analyses how the 11 leading Dutch banking groups and asset managers take into consideration international labor rights standards, and explains whether the banking groups and asset managers keep these in mind when screening companies. It mentions the risk assessments the 11 banking groups and asset managers have in place, and what instruments they use to get in touch with shipping companies so that eventually working conditions in the shipbreaking yards can be improved.

“This study clearly explains how banking groups and asset managers in the Netherlands deal with a sensitive issue like shipbreaking,” said Patrizia Heidegger, Executive Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform. “We hope it will be a good example of what banks and investors can do to ensure that the shipping companies they work with develop a clean, safe and fair ship recycling policy which encompasses the principles of corporate social responsibility. Responsible investors must use their power to influence the business practices of the companies they invest in.”

Link to the full report: http://www.shipbreakingplatform.org/shipbrea_wp2011/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Case-Study-Dutch-banks-and-shipbreaking-FBG-121115-EN-140603.pdf

Source: Marine Link. 4 September 2014

http://www.marinelink.com/news/shipbreaking-examines376411.aspx

Toxic ship paints affect female snails at Gadani: study

Sampling of gastropods is being carried out at the Gadani shipbreaking yard.

KARACHI: Female snails at the Gadani Ship-breaking Yard have been found to have developed male sex organs due to exposure to a highly toxic chemical used in ship paints, a recent study of Karachi University’s Centre of Excellence in Marine Biology has showed.

Scientists have warned that the chemical contamination might have been introduced in the food chain and affecting human population.

Titled ‘Study of imposex in coastal waters of Pakistan: TBT toxicity at Gadani Ship-breaking Yard’, the research has been carried out by Safia Hassan under the supervision of Prof Ghazala Siddiqui.

According the study, two bio-indicator species of gastropods (snails), Thais bufo and T. rudolphi, collected from the Gadani Shipbreaking Yard in Balochistan showed 100 per cent imposex (masculinisation of female snails in response to exposure to certain marine pollutants).

“Tributyltin (TBT) presence and elevated levels of testosterone were recorded in the species’ examination. This indicates that the ship-breaking yard is contributing to organotin (chemical compounds) contamination in marine environment and affects the aquatic organisms despite global ban on their usage in antifouling paints,” the study says.

(An antifouling paint is a specialised coating that is applied to the hull of a vessel to slow down the growth of marine organisms that attach to the hull and can affect performance and durability of the boat or ship)

Imposex in gastropods, according to the study, is induced mainly by TBT and also by its sister compound triphenyltin (TPhT), both considered the most toxic biocide ever introduced in the sea.

“TBT disturbs the normal homeostatic relationship between free and esterified testosterone and increases the free testosterone levels as the species is more exposed to the chemical. TBT exposed imposex snails have elevated levels of testosterone, which is an endocrine dysfunction and is responsible for imposex,” it says.

The compounds of TBT and TPhT, according to the study, can be degraded by solar radiation, bacterial biodegradation or biological decomposition to their metabolites, such as, dibutyltin (DBT), monobutyltin (MBT), diphenyltin (DPT), and monophenyltin (MPT).

“The chemicals released from the paint enter the water column and are finally accumulated in sediments present in and around harbours and along shipping lanes. These chemicals in the water column or sediments are taken up by marine organisms and finally enters the food chain,” it points out.

TBT-based paints, the study says, have been in use as antifouling agents for a long time as they are inexpensive and effective as compared to other antifouling agents. Their use became widespread in the 1970s with the development of self-polishing copolymer paints.

However, as researches highlighted their toxic effects, their application was banned in the late 1980s in many countries.

“Despite the ban, many countries have been experiencing decades of unrestricted use of TBT. To overcome this problem a global ban on the use of TBT from 2003 onwards was introduced which included the removal of all existing coatings of paints containing TBT by 2008.

“The decision was taken by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in 2001 and was implemented in many countries. However, there is no check on organotins released by recycling of old ships at ship-breaking yards,” it says.

On ship-breaking yards, the study highlights that the world’s largest ship-breaking yards are situated in China, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Turkey, which account for 95pc of the global ship-recycling industry over the last three decades.

The shipbreaking industries in these countries dispose of large quantities of hazardous materials, including organotin, into the marine environment without any pre-treatment.

In Pakistan, it says, Gadani Shipbreaking Yard has been in operation even before the country’s independence in 1947. “Although Gadani ranks as the world’s third largest ship-breaking yard, it ranks first due to its efficiency in terms of duration required to break a ship. There is a paucity of information on the environmental contamination due to ship recycling at Gadani and the studies are mostly focused on grease, oil, and bacterial contamination with very little attention on contamination due to chemical compounds and heavy metals,” it says.

Speaking to Dawn, Prof Ghazala Siddiqui said that the phenomenon of imposex had been earlier documented in nine species of gastropods by a team of KU marine experts in 1993 in the Manora Channel.

“There was a gradual decline in the incidence of imposex in the following years as countries started rejecting TBT use following the IMO ban. No case of imposex was recorded in the Manora Channel in 2008,” she said.

Explaining how the chemical contamination might be affecting marine biodiversity and the food chain, she said: “There is evidence that extreme cases of imposex have led to a decline in the snail’s population as females are unable to lay eggs. When one species starts disappearing or completely disappear from the ecosystem, the number of other species they feed on starts increasing, thus causing harm to biodiversity. Similarly, humans are also exposed to the imposex risk through the food chain and exposure to contaminated water. The scale and nature of the problem can be determined by examining the testosterone levels in women,” she said.

According to Prof Siddiqui, gastropods are eaten in many countries and the species was chosen for the specific research because it shows visible structural (imposex) changes when they are exposed to TBT even in low concentration.

“There is a need for more studies to understand ecological issues in play at ship-breaking yards and industries.

Second, the government should take notice of TBT contamination and implement ways to tackle it as it carries huge risks for the people employed at places where old ships are handled and dismantled,” she concluded.

Source: dawn. 4 September 2014

http://www.dawn.com/news/1129680/toxic-ship-paints-affect-female-snails-at-gadani-study

Ship detention highlights need for legal framework for ship recycling:

Introduction

On June 6 2014, after receiving an alert from the Shipbreaking Platform – a non-governmental organisation comprising a coalition of environmental, human rights and labour organisations – the Flemish regional government in Belgium detained the Liberian-flagged, 45,500 deadweight tonnage car carrier Global Spirit (built in 1987) in Antwerp for alleged non-compliance with the EU Waste Shipment Regulation (1013/2006) and because it had been notified that, having reached the end of its service life, it would be beached at Alang in India (which is not a member state of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)). The vessel was loading a cargo of second-hand cars for a final voyage when it was arrested.

The Global Spirit detention was not a clear-cut violation as, on departing Europe, it was destined to travel to a West African port with cargo – not, as was alleged by the Shipbreaking Platform, to India for recycling. The issue was not submitted to court, but the Flemish government reached an agreement with the owners which guaranteed that the vessel would be dismantled and recycled in Turkey. The vessel was released and sailed on June 25 2014.

In a subsequent press release the Flemish government stated that the Waste Shipment Regulation was not the appropriate instrument through which to detain the vessel and emphasised the importance of the Belgian government's commitment to speed up its ratification of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships. The ordeal highlights the interplay between EU regulations and international conventions on the matter of ship recycling.

Shipping and hazardous waste regulations

Ships that constitute waste and are subject to trans-boundary movement for recycling are regulated by the Basel Convention on the Control of the Trans-boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal 1989 and the Waste Shipment Regulation. The Waste Shipment Regulation implements the Basel Convention as well as an amendment made to the convention in 1995 (referred to as the 'ban amendment'), which has not yet entered into force at international level and which bans exports of hazardous waste to countries that are not members of the OECD. Such ships are generally classified as hazardous waste and are thus prohibited from being exported from the European Union for recycling in facilities in countries that are not members of the OECD.

The mechanisms for monitoring the application and enforcement of existing EU and international laws are not adapted to the particularities of ships and international shipping. Inter-agency cooperation between the International Labour Organisation, the IMO and the secretariat of the Basel Convention has resulted in an agreement on the introduction of mandatory requirements, at global level, aimed at ensuring an efficient and effective solution to unsafe and unsound ship recycling practices – the Hong Kong Convention.

However, legally accessible ship recycling capacity in OECD countries for ships flying the flag of an OECD member state is insufficient. Safe and environmentally sound ship recycling capacity in non-OECD member countries is sufficient to treat all ships flying the flag of OECD member states and is expected to expand further by 2015 as the result of actions taken by recycling countries to meet the requirements of the Hong Kong Convention.

Hong Kong Convention

The Hong Kong Convention was adopted on May 15 2009 under the auspices of the IMO. The convention will enter into force 24 months after ratification by at least 15 states representing a combined merchant fleet of at least 40% of the gross tonnage of the world's merchant shipping and whose combined maximum annual ship recycling volume during the preceding 10 years constituted at least 3% of gross tonnage of the combined merchant shipping of those states. The convention covers the design, construction, operation and preparation of ships with a view to facilitating safe and environmentally sound recycling without compromising ship safety and operational efficiency. It also covers the operation of ship recycling facilities in a safe and environmentally sound manner, and the establishment of an appropriate enforcement mechanism for ship recycling.

EU Ship Recycling Regulation

The new EU Ship Recycling Regulation (1257/2013) – which came into force in December 2013 and appears to follow the Hong Kong Convention closely – is intended to facilitate early ratification of the convention both within the European Union and in third countries by applying proportionate controls on ships and ship recycling facilities.

The convention provides explicitly for parties to take more stringent measures consistent with international law in regards to the safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships, in order to prevent, reduce or minimise any adverse effects on human health and the environment. Taking this into account, the Ship Recycling Regulation should provide protection from the possible adverse effects of hazardous materials on board all ships calling at a port or anchorage of a member state while ensuring compliance with the provisions applicable to those materials under international law. According to the regulation's preamble, in order to monitor compliance with the requirements relating to hazardous materials under the regulation, member states should apply national provisions to implement EU Directive 2009/16/EC. At present, port state control inspectors are tasked with both the inspection of certification and active testing for hazardous materials, including asbestos, under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. The Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control provides a harmonised approach for these activities.

The preamble states that the Ship Recycling Regulation is also intended to:

Reduce disparities between operators in the European Union, OECD countries and relevant third countries in terms of workplace health and safety and environmental standards; and

direct ships flying the flag of an EU member state to ship recycling facilities that practise safe and environmentally sound methods of dismantling ships instead of sub-standard sites, as is the existing practice.

This would therefore increase competitiveness in safe and environmentally sound recycling and treatment of ships among ship recycling facilities in member states. The establishment of a European list of ship recycling facilities fulfilling the requirements set out in this regulation would also contribute to these objectives and to better enforcement by facilitating member states' control over to-be-recycled ships that fly the flag of the member state in question. For ship recycling facilities in a third country, the requirements should ensure a high degree of protection of human health and the environment that is broadly equivalent to that in the European Union. Ship recycling facilities that do not meet these minimum requirements should therefore not be included in the European list.

Overlap with Waste Shipment Regulation

In order to avoid overlap, it is necessary to exclude EU member state-flagged ships that fall under the scope of the Ship Recycling Regulation from the scope of the Waste Shipment Regulation and EU Directive 2008/98/EC. The Waste Shipment Regulation applies to shipments of waste from the European Union, subject to exclusions for certain categories of waste where an alternative regime applies. The Ship Recycling Regulation subjects ships within its scope to controls throughout their lifecycle and aims to secure recycling of these ships in an environmentally sound manner. It is therefore appropriate to specify that a ship subject to the alternative control regime under the Ship Recycling Regulation should not be subject to the Waste Shipment Regulation. According to the preamble of the Ship Recycling Regulation, ships covered by neither the Hong Kong Convention nor the Ship Recycling Regulation, as well as any waste on board a ship other than operationally generated waste, should continue to be subject to the Waste Shipment Regulation and to Directives 2008/98/EC and 2008/99/EC, respectively. It has also been acknowledged that ships continue to be subject to other international conventions to ensure their safe operation at sea during the operational part of their lifecycle.

Comment

The Waste Shipment Regulation and the Basel Convention (on which this regulation is based) were never intended to apply to international shipping or ships that are scheduled to be recycled. While the Waste Shipment Regulation is good for controlling the export of hazardous waste, it becomes flawed when regulating end-of-life ships. The relevant regime applicable to international shipping is the Hong Kong Convention. Although this instrument has not yet entered into force, it is fully supported by the international shipping industry and provides a sounder and far more relevant basis to determine whether a shipping company fulfils its responsibilities to ensure that redundant ships are recycled in a safe and environmentally sustainable manner. This compelled the European Parliament and the EU Council to develop the new Ship Recycling Regulation. Article 27 of this new regulation, once fully applied, excludes EU-flagged ships from the requirements of the Waste Shipment Regulation but does not exclude non-EU-flagged vessels. As Nikos Mikelis, former head of the IMO's maritime pollution prevention and ship recycling section, has stated:(1)

"Owners of non-EU-flag ships intending to recycle their vessels now or in the future will have to walk a tightrope when trading in EU ports so as not to fall prey to the activists, who see their role in enforcing the Ban Amendment to ship recycling and also in banning beaching."

For further information on this topic please contact Dirk Noels at Kegels & Co by telephone (+32 3 257 1771), fax (+32 3 257 1474) or email (dirk.noels@kegels-co.be). The Kegels & Co website can be accessed at www.kegels-co.be.

Endnotes

(1) "Vessel arrest highlights need to ratify Hong Kong Convention on ship recycling", Tradewinds, June 13 2014.

Source: international law office. 3 September 2014

http://www.internationallawoffice.com/newsletters/detail.aspx?g=1ad7f7e1-4cca-4df6-8774-9c08ca377f73

Demandeur pays: The EU and funding improvements in South Asian ship recycling practices

Highlights:

• The Hong Kong Convention on ship recycling remains far from ratification.
• South Asian nations with suspect practices are indifferent to this convention.
• Using European legislation to improve South Asian practices is problematic.
• EU aid to South Asian nations is more likely to encourage desired improvements.

Abstract:

Questionable practices for dismantling end-of-life ships or ‘ship recycling’ on South Asian countries’ shores have elicited unease given their dominance of this unevenly regulated global industry. International efforts to establish enforceable regulations have met with limited success so far, and yet this limited success may be further eroded as different interests promote their own preferred arrangements—or ignore them altogether. This paper focuses on narrowing differences between the European Union and South Asian ship recycling nations over regulating this trade by sequentially detailing its economic rationales, environmental regimes and relevant sustainability principles. These tasks performed, I deductively build a case for an aid-based, ‘demandeur pays’ approach to meaningfully address this impasse after considering other options to fund improved ship recycling practices in South Asia.

Keywords:

Ship recycling; Hong Kong Convention; California effect; Demandeur pays

Author: 

Emmanuel Yujuico

University of Asia and the Pacific, School of Law and Governance, Pearl Drive, Ortigas Center, Pasig City 1605, Philippines

Tel.: +63 2 637 0912x323. yujuico@gmail.com

Source: science direct.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856414001803

Investigating the Sustainability of the Ship-Recycling Industry in Bangladesh

Researcher(s): Audrey Mayer, S. M. Mizanur Rahman

Institution: Michigan Technological University

Sustainable Ship-Recycling in Bangladesh

This project will improve the sustainability of the ship-recycling industry in Bangladesh, where millions of tons of metal are recovered from hundreds of beached container ships, oil tankers, and cruise liners annually. We will investigate how recycled metal flows through the metal smith community in Dhaka, and identify improvements that reduce environmental impacts and maintain social networks.

Why This Project Is Important

Every year, thousands of container ships, oil tankers, and cruise liners are beached on the shores of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh to be broken down and recycled. In Bangladesh alone, the beaching of hundreds of massive ships contributes over 70% of the country’s metal resources, but contaminates the environment and food resources with heavy metals, oil, and asbestos. The magnitude of the flow of used ships to these coastlines illustrates the global scale of humanity's consumption of oil and resources, and its consequences for the poorest among us. While the metal from the ships represents a critical resource for a growing population in Bangladesh, the manner in which these ships are dismantled (by hand with ropes and blow torches) is damaging to people's health and their environment. Our project will use theories from a field called "industrial ecology" to try to improve the economic, social, and environmental dynamics of this ship-recycling industry, to ensure that it is truly sustainable.

Project Description

There are about 200-300 ships beached in the Chittagong (Bangladesh) ship breaking yards each year, providing around 1.5 million tons of scrap ferrous metal, more than 70% of the country’s steel demand. Over 20,000 people work as day laborers in the industry, at over 10,000 small and medium business engaged in processing these metals into final products. Bangladesh is assumed to be second largest country, after India, in the world that rips the ships apart. Despite these dynamics, few studies have investigated the social aspects of the industry, and no study has tracked the material flow of the industry across the country.

Scrap metals from the ship-breaking industry in Bangladesh are drawn from Chittagong (where the retired ships are beached) to a community in the capital city Dhaka, five hundred miles away from Chittagong, for further processing. We hypothesize that the relationships among the members of the Dhaka community (and between Dhaka and Chittagong) dictates resource flows. Based on previous studies, we know that metal-working skill, familial and social ties, and long-term reciprocal business relationships can restrain an individual’s competitive mentality and encourage cooperation, and hence resource sharing.

This study will focus on two issues; tracking scrap ferrous metal flows and analyzing the community’s social relations with respect to those resource flows. We will conduct this research by interviewing two groups of people: metal resource contractors of the ship breaking industry (the people who move the metal from the ship breaking yards to the metal workers), and metal working business owners in the Dhaka community (the people who turn the scrap metal into products such as rebar for building construction).

We are expecting to conduct about fifty interviews, each of which may last for about an hour. Our questions will largely focus on the level of family ties among businesses, level of reciprocity, resource processing and collection methods, etc. Interviews will be conducted in the local Bangla language. They will be recorded, transcribed, coded, and then analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods to understand the level of social relations and cooperation involved and the extent responsible for metal flow direction. We will also interview people who either control the purchase of ships or the distribution of metal recovered from the ships into the metal smith communities. We will trace the amount of metal they distribute by weights and by element on an annual basis. To understand the distribution of metals beyond these key informants, we will largely depend on the intermediaries of those who maintain contacts and orders with both the ship-breaking contractors and the small and medium firm owners of metals recycling businesses. Those people will be identified through interviews of community business people and metal contractors. Finally, we expect to contact local and regional government officials and statistical officials to find data that is relevant to the metal distribution, as well as relevant laws and programs for the industry.

Source: http://www.superiorideas.org/projects/Ship-Recycling

UNEP Feasibility study on alternatives to the beaching method of ship recycling: Questions and Answers

Questions and Answers during the webinars on “Feasibility study on alternatives to the beaching method of ship recycling”. 08 and 10 October 2013

Q. During the feasibility study did you consult with the ship recycling facility owners in India? If yes, what was their reaction to the outcome of the study? Was there any positive feedback on their interest for planning an investment to improve their recycling processes, as foreseen in the study?

A. We tried to consult with the ship recyclers in South Asia during the course of the study. While conducting it, we experienced some reluctance as well as interest in how this could be done. But up to this point, we have not received any definitive feedback from ship breakers.

Some ship recyclers are more progressive and foresee, particularly in light of the European regulation that has been developed, that a more forward-looking policy has to be adopted in Asia, too. Of course we know that there are ship recyclers in many countries who, if they can’t conduct the industry on the beach, will not be willing to advance towards alternative facilities, but I do believe that there are some companies considering the matter. This study is particularly aimed at those companies. Unfortunately until now, there was not a lot of feedback from ship recyclers. Although over the years I’ve worked in the industry I noticed interest in this subject matter.

Q. We recently learnt of one project in the Indian state of Gujarat where a company has applied to get a permit to create a new ship recycling facility in the Mundra port area. This would be the first Indian facility using different ship breaking methods (i.e. other than beaching). I was wondering if you know about this project. (I am not referring to another project related to a dry dock)

A. The secretariat didn’t identify any project of this type during the study. But it would be important to disseminate information on such experience.

Q. Are there certification schemes for ship recycling yards that are complying with labour and environment standards apart from the ISO 14000 series?

A. Quite correctly, focusing on the Asian region, for example, ship recycling companies do seek to be ISO 9000 and 14000 compliant. In each location, there are facilities compliant with those standards. There is also another standard that has been developed and that is directly related to ship recycling. This is the ISO 30000 series, specifically a management standard which was developed to assist ship recycling facilities in implementing procedures to ensure environmental, safety, health, and labour standards so as to comply with national and international regulations.

Q. What more can you tell us about the Chang Jiang shipbreaking site in China?

A. The yard is located at Jiangyin city, near a town called Wuxi, a few hours west of Shanghai on the Yangtze River. This is the yard that a renowned shipping company partnered with to carry out improvements so that they could send their ships to be recycled in an environmentally sound manner.

Q. In terms of hazardous wastes, of potentially recyclable materials and scraps, do you know if studies were carried out and are available on which parts can be recycled in ships? Is there a material flow analysis of certain ship types available that may be suitable for planning and upgrading standards?

A. You will find a general analysis in a World Bank study available at: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2010/12/13695952/ship-breaking-recycling-industry-bangladesh-pakistan. On the basis of the inventories of hazardous materials that were made available for the study, this study contains these estimations on certain types of ships. General information on hazardous liquids and parts containing hazardous substances is also included in the Basel Convention Technical Guidelines for the Environmentally Sound Management of the Full and Partial Dismantling of Ships available at: http://www.basel.int/Portals/4/Basel%20Convention/docs/meetings/sbc/workdoc/techgships-e.pdf.  This information may also be available in publications or web sites of shipping companies or classification societies. In addition, a project that the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions are conducting, and that should be starting within the next following months, will develop inventories of hazardous wastes in the Gadani - Hub area of Pakistan, as well as in the Chittagong region of Bangladesh, places where ship recycling and other industrial activities take place in these countries and that may produce hazardous wastes. The inventories to be developed are more localized and, clearly, most of the information will come from the ship recycling yards and from inventories of hazardous materials comprised in the ship. The objective of this study is to assist these countries in developing the requisite hazardous wastes management infrastructure which is, at the moment, is completely lacking.

Q. Referring to the abovementioned project, is this mentioned on the Basel Convention homepage? On the ship dismantling web page, next to the feasibility study, there is a paragraph on this project, but not much information is yet available.

A. On the Basel Convention website, the path to the mentioned project is: Implementation/Ship Dismantling/Capacity Building. This project has not yet commenced in earnest thus there is limited information available at this time. The project should start in the next month or two.

Q. Have you identified investors and do you think there is a willingness from countries or private donors to upgrade ship recycling facilities, according to the feasibility study?

A. We did not look into investors but they could basically be development banks, banks with interest in ship recycling. There is a clear interest to upgrade ship recycling facilities in some Asian Countries such as Pakistan, India and the Philippines - a country where, for the moment, domestic ships are recycled using slipway methods, but where there may be interest in future to accept vessels from other countries.

Q. When the ships get to the ports to be dismantled is there, in the Basel or Hong Kong Conventions, a requirement to have a lab test and make an inventory of hazardous chemicals, their qualification and their concentration?

A. The Hong Kong Convention is probably the most relevant in this area even though it has not yet entered into force. The guidelines for the development of the inventory of hazardous materials, developed under the framework of this convention, do talk about sampling of hazardous substances on board. The Convention requires that an inventory of the ships’ hazardous materials be made. It is left to the local administration to develop procedures to assert that this be done. In Bangladesh for example, following the ship building, breaking and recycling rule of 2011, they have developed procedures where personnel go on board and check whether the inventories are accurate. The Basel Convention Guidelines also provide information in this regard, and can be accessed through the Basel Convention website at: http://www.basel.int/Portals/4/Basel%20Convention/docs/meetings/sbc/workdoc/techgships-e.pdf. Of course, under the Basel Convention, the competent authorities may choose to undertake a sampling of the shipment if there is a question as to whether it matches what is indicated in the movement document. This can be particularly important if a ship is to be repatriated for example.

Q. This question is addressed, in particular, to a participant from a university, which is involved in a ship dismantling project with the Chinese Government. Can you tell us more about your project?

A. This project is funded by the European Commission, in the framework of a bilateral program that runs between the European Union and China called “the Environmental Sustainability Programme”. This is a three-year project that started at the beginning of August 2013. The kick-off meeting for the project will take place in Beijing, in October 2013. The basic idea of the project is to review environmental hazards to increase the recovery of recyclable materials and to include occupational health and safety issues in the current practices. One important module we have included aims, on one hand, to carry out a material flow analysis on certain ship types, on the other hand, to implement a third party inspection system. As shown in the presentation, this is closely related to the topic of how ship owners try to identify potentially certified ship recycling yards. With that third party inspection system developed, including indicators, the project aims to create a Chinese internal certifying system for these existing yards, in order to improve the competitiveness of the Chinese ship recycling sector. Some project components will conduct research on indicators that could make more visible potential improvements in the ship recycling process at the yards. The indicators will form the basis of a sustainability assessment which is also part of the project. The project also includes a policy dialogue module. This will be based on the whole project outcome, through this module we would like to open a dialogue on some national regulations/standards that may or would be implemented in China, in the future.

Q. A follow-up question: Will you implement the project in cooperation with the Chinese government and the ship recycling association in China?

A. Besides the ministry, the project will be implemented in cooperation with the ship recycling association as an associate partner. The project also aims to establish a China ship recycling network at a national level and to link this network with the existing international networks.

Q. In the presentation it was mentioned that one of the key challenges in ship recycling is to find ship yards that are working respecting ESM standards. Did you encounter any control systems in place on the matter? Did you identify the third-party that would carry out inspections in the framework of your project in China?

A. For China we did not yet identify it, although we met and talked with controlling officers that are out to overview the ship recycling yards’ compliance with national regulations. In the current situation, ship owners find it difficult to monitor the whole process and in some cases they had to allocate their own personnel to carry out quality assurance of the process.

Q. Will this feasibility study be presented at the upcoming meeting of the Open-ended Working Group? In the study, are there recommendations for further action from the Basel parties to work on? Will the study simply be presented there or will some kind of a programme of work emerge from that?

A. Actually this study was presented to the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention, back in April-May 2013. It won’t be discussed again at next OEWG. At OEWG-9, the secretariat will be providing updates on the next project that we are undertaking on Inventories that was previously mentioned. In terms of recommendations resulting from this study and the case study, the secretariat is trying to assist parties in complying at ship recycling facilities with not only the Basel Convention but also the Hong Kong Convention. The entry into force of the Hong Kong Convention will certainly enhance the standards of the industries of this sector. Both the Basel and the Hong Kong conventions provide useful legal and policy frameworks to regulate this industry.  

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF SHIP DISMANTLING:

Abstract:

The purpose of this thesis was to study how ocean-going vessels are permanently withdrawn from operation by dismantling. The intention was to gain an understanding on how the ship dismantling has developed into the current state and what the near future holds for the industry. This thesis concentrates particularly on the impacts that ship dismantling has on the environment – nature and the human. The purpose was to find ways to reduce the environmental impacts.

The dismantling of a ship includes removing the equipment and breaking the hull. Ship dismantling meets many of the characteristics of recycling but on the other hand because of its adverse environmental effects it is rarely referred to as recycling. A very high recycling rate can be reached especially with tanker ships because the share of the ship’s steel hull from the total mass of the vessel is significant.

There have been attempts to regulate the environmental impacts of ship dismantling since the late 1980s. The results have however been poor because the regulations have been easy to avoid. The creation of new stricter and internationally binding laws is very slow. Entering into force is even slower.

95 percent of all commercial vessels are dismantled in South Asia where the labour costs are low and the occupational safety and environmental requirements are minimal. The largest country in the field of ship dismantling is India. The most common method of ship dismantling is to beach a vessel during a high tide. During the low tide ships are cut into pieces manually with gas torches. The process takes place on unprotected beaches. Hazardous substances then spread freely into the ocean and the soil.

The decision of dismantling a ship is made when the maintenance expenses exceed the profits from operating the ship. The utilization rate of a ship is directly comparable to the global economy. During a global economic boom the operators try to avoid breaking their ships because of high freight rates. The ship dismantling industry works inversely compared with the global economy. During the recent recession a record number of ships have been scrapped.

Keywords: ship dismantling, ship recycling, environmental impact

Author: Juho Vuori

BACHELOR´S THESIS | ABSTRACT

TURKU UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES

Mechanical and Production Engineering | Product Development

Completion of the thesis 15 May 2013