The Basel Convention on the Control of
Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and Their Disposal, also known as
the Basel Convention was adopted in 1989 and came into force in 1992. The
Convention was aimed at controlling the movement and disposal of hazardous
wastes from the developed countries to the developing countries, so that the
illegal dumping of wastes by the operating companies could be prevented. The
Convention does not prohibit the export of hazardous waste within the member
states. However, it requires parties to follow a notice and consent system
known as “prior informed consent.”
An amendment to the Convention was
subsequently agreed, known as the Basel Ban Amendment, which prohibits the
transportation of hazardous wastes from an OECD country to a non-OECD country.
Although the Ban Amendment isn’t in force
yet, the provisions of both the Basel Convention and the Basel Ban Amendment
are effectively applicable at a European level by means of the European Waste
Shipment Regulation. Effectively, in absence of a legally-binding instrument
applicable to end-of-life ships and offshore assets, European Waste Shipment
Regulation is considered to be applicable to ships and offshore assets. This
assertion means ships (and offshore structures) cannot be exported from an E.U.
country to any of the major ship recycling countries (India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, China) except Turkey because it is a member of the OECD group.
The Hong Kong International Convention,
adopted by the IMO in 2009 in response to the demands for a legally-binding instrument
regulating the global ship recycling industry isn’t in force yet. However, it
has managed to propel the developments in the industry. Several ship recycling
yards in India, China and Turkey have developed their infrastructure in line
with the Hong Kong Convention to obtain Statements of Compliance with Hong Kong
Convention awarded by IACS-member classification societies.
These Statements of Compliance refute the
claims that safe and environmentally sound ship recycling is not possible on
yards in South Asia due to the use of the beaching method to dock end-of-life
ships. These Statements of Compliance have brought the improvements made by
yards in South Asia (in particular India) into the limelight, and now these
yards are equivalent to others in terms of health, safety and environmental
standards.
Presently, 50 percent of India’s active yards
have obtained Statements of Compliance with the Hong Kong Convention,
Bangladesh has one, China has six and Turkey has seven such yards. In such a
scenario, when safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships is possible
outside the OECD member countries whilst India and China have enough capacity,
a logical question to ask is: are the Basel Convention, the Basel Ban Amendment
and the European Waste Shipment Regulation still relevant?
The European Waste Shipment Regulation forces
shipowners who want to export a ship from a E.U. port to sell their end-of-life
ships for recycling only to Turkey (and to other OECD countries) despite the
fact that same standards of recycling are now available in other countries
where ship owners can get a better deal in economic sense.
Although the above mentioned regulations were
not drafted for intended application to the shipping industry, they continue to
be applied to bring the shipping industry under its purview. The main aim of
these regulations was to safeguard the interests of the developing countries
against the dumping of hazardous wastes as these countries weren’t equipped to
deal with such wastes. However, now with the availability of yards in India
equipped to recycle end-of-life ships in a way as safe and environmentally
friendly as in yards in Turkey or elsewhere in the world, sending ships only to
Turkey from the E.U. under the purview of European Waste Shipment Regulation
sounds rather illogical. An important point to consider here is the fact that
even in Turkey, only a few yards are HKC-compliant which effectively means it
is difficult to ensure safe and environmentally friendly recycling even if a
ship is transported to Turkey.
Another important point to support the idea
of allowing ships and offshore structures from the E.U. to recycle in India on
Hong Kong Convention-compliant yards is the fact that the recycling facilities
in the E.U. do not have enough recycling capacity to dismantle large
ocean-going vessels. Interestingly, some yards listed in the so-called
E.U.-list that has been approved by the European Commission, weren’t even
operational in the recent past. However, the list will soon be updated by the
European Commission to add more capacity.
Moreover, the fact that the yards in E.U. and
Turkey are in no position to offer more than the yards in India for buying
end-of-life ships due to the strong downstream market for second-hand goods and
re-rollable scrap is also critical. This not only makes economic sense for the
shipowners, but it is also environmentally friendlier than melting steel scrap
and discarding reusable goods as waste – a practice followed in the Turkish
ship recycling industry for instance.
In conclusion, more than eight years after
the Hong Kong Convention was adopted, several yards in India have voluntarily
upgraded themselves to undertake safe and environmentally sound recycling of
ships. Such developments have led to question the rationale behind the sendover
of end-of-life ships and offshore structures from the E.U. just to Turkey under
the purview of the European Waste Shipment Regulation.
Now is the time to review these regulations
which do not augur well for the ship owner’s finances and sustainability in the
shipping industry. Although the new European Regulation on Ship Recycling is
due to replace the European Waste Shipment Regulation in 2018, there has not
been a decision made on the future of the Basel Convention. One complication is
that, in the E.U. after the full implementation of the new regulation, the
European Waste Shipment Regulation will still apply to ships of non-EU flag
departing from the E.U. for recycling.
Despite the fact that the European Regulation
on Ship Recycling may approve yards from China and even India, the European
Waste Shipment Regulation will still allow ships to be sent only to OECD
countries. The extent of confusion and complexity in the existing regulations
is such that requires immediate reviewing, to the best interest of the
industry.
Source:
maritime-executive.
20 February 2018
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