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Ship-breaking (also known as ship recycling, ship demolition, ship dismantling, or ship cracking) is a type of
ship disposal A number of different methods exist for disposing of a ship after it has reached the end of its effective or economic service life with an organisation.
Options
Although many options are technically possible, some, such as deep water sinking, are ...
involving the breaking up of ships for either a source of
parts, which can be sold for re-use, or for the extraction of
raw material
A raw material, also known as a feedstock, unprocessed material, or primary commodity, is a basic material that is used to produce goods, finished goods, energy, or intermediate materials that are feedstock for future finished products. As feedst ...
s, chiefly
scrap
Scrap consists of Recycling, recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap Waste valorization, has monetary ...
. Modern ships have a lifespan of 25 to 30 years before
corrosion
Corrosion is a natural process that converts a refined metal into a more chemically stable oxide. It is the gradual deterioration of materials (usually a metal) by chemical or electrochemical reaction with their environment. Corrosion engine ...
,
metal fatigue
In materials science, fatigue is the initiation and propagation of cracks in a material due to cyclic loading. Once a fatigue crack has initiated, it grows a small amount with each loading cycle, typically producing striations on some parts o ...
and a lack of parts render them uneconomical to operate. Ship-breaking allows the materials from the ship, especially steel, to be
recycled
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...
and made into new products. This lowers the demand for mined
iron ore
Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...
and reduces energy use in the
steelmaking
Steelmaking is the process of producing steel from iron ore and carbon/or scrap. In steelmaking, impurities such as nitrogen, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur and excess carbon (the most important impurity) are removed from the sourced iron, and all ...
process. Fixtures and other equipment on board the vessels can also be reused. While ship-breaking is sustainable, there are concerns about the use by poorer countries without stringent environmental legislation. It is also labour-intensive, and considered one of the world's most dangerous industries.
In 2012, roughly 1,250 ocean ships were broken down, and their average age was 26 years.
In 2013, the world total of demolished ships amounted to 29,052,000 tonnes, 92% of which were demolished in Asia. As of January 2020,
Alang Ship Breaking Yard
The Alang Ship Breaking Yard is claimed to be the world's largest ship breaking yard, responsible for dismantling a significant number of retired freight and cargo ships salvaged around the world. It is located on the Gulf of Khambhat in the town ...
(
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
) has the largest global share at 30%;
[ followed by ]Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard
Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard is located in Faujdarhat, Sitakunda Upazila, Bangladesh along the Sitakunda coastal strip, north-west of Chittagong. Handling about a fifth of the world's total, it was the world's largest ship breaking yard, until ...
(Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
) and Gadani ship-breaking yard
Gadani ship-breaking yard is the world's third largest ship breaking yard located across a long beachfront at Gadani, Pakistan. The yard consists of 132 ship-breaking plots."Record 107 ships dismantled at Gaddani" by Parvaiz Ishfaq Rana, ''Dawn' ...
(Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
).
The largest sources of ships are China, Greece, and Germany respectively, although there is a greater variation in the source of carriers versus their disposal. The ship-breaking yards of India, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan employ 225,000 workers as well as providing many indirect jobs. In Bangladesh, the recycled steel covers 20% of the country's needs and in India it is almost 10%.
As an alternative to ship-breaking, ships may be sunk to create artificial reef
An artificial reef is a human-created underwater structure, typically built to promote marine life in areas with a generally featureless bottom, to control erosion, block ship passage, block the use of trawling nets, or improve surfing.
Many re ...
s after legally-mandated removal of hazardous materials (though this does not recycle any materials), or sunk in deep ocean waters. Storage is a viable temporary option, whether on land or afloat, though most ships will be eventually scrapped, some will be sunk, or preserved as museums.
History
Wooden-hulled ships were simply set on fire or "conveniently sunk". In Tudor times
The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England that began with t ...
(1485–1603), ships were dismantled and the timber re-used. This procedure was no longer applicable with the advent of metal-hulled boats[alternate URL]
/ref> in the 19th century.
In 1880 Denny Brothers of Dumbarton used forgings made from scrap maritime steel in their shipbuilding. Many other nations began to purchase British ships for scrap by the late-19th century, including Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, the Netherlands and Japan. The Italian industry started in 1892, and the Japanese industry after the passing of an 1896 law to subsidise native shipbuilding.[
After suffering damage or disaster, liner operators did not want the name of a broken ship to tarnish the ]brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
of their passenger services. Many Victorian ships made their final voyages with the final letter of their name chipped off.[
In the 1930s it became cheaper to "beach" a boat by running her ashore – as opposed to using a dry dock. The ship would have to weigh as little as possible and would run ashore at full speed. Dismantling operations required a rise of ]tide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravity, gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another.
Tide t ...
and close proximity to a steel-works. Electric shears
Shears may refer to:
Cutting devices
* Scissors, also called shears
* Hair-cutting shears
* Blade shears, typically used for shearing animals
* Grass shears, for lawn trimming
* Kitchen shears, scissors used in the kitchen for food preparation
* ...
, a wrecking ball
A wrecking ball is a heavy steel ball, usually hung from a crane, that is used for demolishing large buildings. It was most commonly in use during the 1950s and 1960s. Several wrecking companies claim to have invented the wrecking ball. An e ...
and oxy-acetylene
Principle of burn cutting
Oxy-fuel welding (commonly called oxyacetylene welding, oxy welding, or gas welding in the United States) and oxy-fuel cutting are processes that use fuel gases (or liquid fuels such as gasoline or petrol, diesel, ...
torches were used. The technique of the time closely resembles that used in developing countries . Thos. W. Ward
Thos. W. Ward Ltd was a Sheffield, Yorkshire, steel, engineering and cement business, which began as coal and coke merchants. It expanded into recycling metal for Sheffield's steel industry, and then the supply and manufacture of machinery.
I ...
Ltd., one of the largest breakers in the United Kingdom in the 1930s, would recondition and sell all furniture and machinery. Many historical artifacts were sold at public auctions: the Cunarder , sold as scrap for , received high bids for her fittings worldwide. However, any weapons and military information, even if obsolete, were carefully removed by Navy personnel before turning over the ship for scrapping.[
]
In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
crippled the cruise-ship trade, cruise vessels began to appear more frequently in ship-breaking facilities.
Location trends
Until the late-20th century the majority of ship-breaking activity took place in the port cities of industrialized countries
A developed country (or industrialized country, high-income country, more economically developed country (MEDC), advanced country) is a sovereign state that has a high quality of life, developed economy and advanced technological infrastruct ...
such as the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
and the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. those dismantlers that still remain in the United States work primarily on government-surplus vessels.
Starting in the mid-20th century, East Asian countries with lower labour costs began to dominate ship-breaking. As labour costs rose, centres of the ship-breaking industry moved – initially from countries such as Japan and Hong Kong to Korea and Taiwan and then to China. For example, the southern port city of Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsi ...
in Taiwan operated as the world's leading dismantling site in the late 1960s and 1970s, breaking up 220 ships totaling 1.6 million tons in 1972 alone; in 1977 Taiwan continued to dominate the industry with more than half the market share, followed by Spain and Pakistan. At the time, Bangladesh had no capacity at all. However, the sector is volatile and fluctuates wildly, and Taiwan processed just 2 ships 13 years later as wages across East Asia rose. For comparison, depending on their profession, shipbreakers in Kaohsiung earned from (day labourer) to (torch operator) per day in 1973.[
]
In 1960, after a severe cyclone, the Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
ship ''M D Alpine'' was stranded on the shores of Sitakunda
Sitakunda or Sitakunda Town ( bn, সীতাকুণ্ড শহর) is an administrative centre and the sole municipality (''Paurashava'') of Sitakunda Upazila in Chattogram District, located in Chattogram Division, Bangladesh. Sitakunda is ...
, Chittagong
Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in B ...
(then part of East Pakistan
East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Scheme, One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India ...
). It could not be re-floated and so remained there for several years. In 1965 the Chittagong
Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in B ...
Steel House bought the ship and had it scrapped. It took years to scrap the vessel, but the work gave birth to the industry in Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
.
Until 1980 the Gadani ship-breaking yard
Gadani ship-breaking yard is the world's third largest ship breaking yard located across a long beachfront at Gadani, Pakistan. The yard consists of 132 ship-breaking plots."Record 107 ships dismantled at Gaddani" by Parvaiz Ishfaq Rana, ''Dawn' ...
of Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
was the largest ship-breaking yard in the world.
Tightening environmental regulations resulted in increased hazardous waste disposal costs in industrialised countries in the 1980s, causing the export of retired ships to lower-income areas, chiefly in South Asia. This, in turn, created a far worse environmental problem, subsequently leading to the Basel Convention
The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, usually known as the Basel Convention, is an international treaty that was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations ...
of 1989. In 2004 a Basel Convention decision officially classified old ships as "toxic waste", preventing them from leaving a country without the permission of the importing state. This has led to a resurgence of recycling in environmentally-compliant locations in developed countries, especially in former ship-building yards.
On 31 December 2005 the French Navy's left Toulon
Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...
to be dismantled in Alang
Alang is a census town in Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Because it is home to the Alang Ship Breaking Yard, Alang beaches are considered the world's largest ship graveyard.
Demographics
As of the 2001 Indian census, Al ...
, India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
– despite protests over improper disposal capabilities and facilities for the toxic wastes. On 6 January 2006 the Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...
temporarily denied access to Alang, and the French ''Conseil d'État'' ordered ''Clemenceau'' to return to French waters. Able UK in Hartlepool received a new disassembly contract to use accepted practices in scrapping the ship. The dismantling started on 18 November 2009 and the break-up was completed by the end of 2010; the event was considered a turning point in the treatment of redundant vessels. Europe and the United States have had a resurgence in ship scrapping since the 1990s.
In 2009 the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association won a legal case prohibiting all substandard ship-breaking. For 14 months the industry could not import ships and thousands of jobs were lost before the ban was annulled. That same year, the global recession
A global recession is recession that affects many countries around the world—that is, a period of global economic slowdown or declining economic output.
Definitions
The International Monetary Fund defines a global recession as "a decline i ...
and lower demand for goods led to an increase in the supply of ships for decommissioning. The rate of scrapping is inversely correlated to the freight price, which collapsed in 2009.
Technique
The decommissioning process is entirely different in developed countries than it is in third world countries. In both cases, ship-breakers bid for the ship, and the highest bidder wins the contract. The ship-breaker then acquires the vessel from the international broker who deals in outdated ships. The price paid is around $400 per tonne and the poorer the environmental legislation the higher the price. The purchase of water-craft makes up 69% of the income earned by the industry in Bangladesh, versus 2% for labour costs. The ship is taken to the decommissioning location either under its own power or with the use of tugs.
Developing countries
In developing countries, chiefly the Indian subcontinent, ships are run ashore on gently sloping sand tidal beaches at high tide so that they can be accessed for disassembly. In the beaching method, no external source of energy is used to pull the ship, as opposed to the dry dock method of ship recycling where a ship is brought inside dry dock by consuming huge energy. However, maneuvering a large ship onto a beach at high speed takes skill and daring even for a specialist captain, and is not always successful. Next, the anchor is dropped to steady the ship and the engine is shut down. It takes 50 labourers about three months to break down a normal-sized cargo vessel of about 40,000 tonnes.
Before the decommissioning begins, various clearances and permissions are obtained from regulatory, pollution, and customs authorities after a thorough inspection is conducted by them. The ship recycling process then begins with the draining of fuel, hydraulic fluid
A hydraulic fluid or hydraulic liquid is the medium by which power is transferred in hydraulic machinery. Common hydraulic fluids are based on mineral oil or water. Examples of equipment that might use hydraulic fluids are excavators and backhoe ...
, coolant
A coolant is a substance, typically liquid, that is used to reduce or regulate the temperature of a system. An ideal coolant has high thermal capacity, low viscosity, is low-cost, non-toxic, chemically inert and neither causes nor promotes corrosio ...
, lubricating oils and firefighting liquid. Any kind of waste such as plastic, garbage, or oily sand is sent to waste treatment facilities, like the Common Hazardous Waste Treatment Storage Disposal Facility (CHW-TSDF) set up by the Gujarat Maritime Board
Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) is a government agency of the Government of Gujarat, a state of India. It was founded in 1982 to control, manage and operate the minor ports of Gujarat.
History
The GMB was founded in 1982 under the Gujarat Maritime Bo ...
in Alang. Any usable oil is sent to government authorized refineries where used oil is chemically treated. The next steps entail recovering unused and partially spent materials, disposal of bilge
The bilge of a ship or boat is the part of the hull that would rest on the ground if the vessel were unsupported by water. The "turn of the bilge" is the transition from the bottom of a hull to the sides of a hull.
Internally, the bilges (usu ...
water, recovering and obtaining reusable materials, and safe disposal of bio-hazardous materials like asbestos
Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...
and glass wool
Glass wool is an insulating material made from glass fiber arranged using a binder into a texture similar to wool. The process traps many small pockets of air between the glass, and these small air pockets result in high thermal insulation prop ...
. Each of these materials are inspected and sent to regulated waste treatment facilities or to buyers for further use and processing.
In recycling yards in the Indian subcontinent, specifically in Alang, upgraded facilities such as 100% impervious floors with drainage systems, heavy lift cranes, yard and vessel-specific training for workers, and the development and implementation of Ship Recycling Facility Plans and Ship Recycling Plans (as per IMO’s guidelines in Resolutions MEPC.210(63) and MEPC.196(62)) have been implemented.
Developed countries
In developed countries the dismantling process should mirror the technical guidelines for the environmentally sound management of the full and partial dismantling of ships, published by the Basel Convention in 2003. Recycling rates of 98% can be achieved in these facilities.
Prior to dismantling, an inventory of dangerous substances should be compiled. All hazardous materials and liquids, such as bilge water
The bilge of a ship or boat is the part of the hull that would rest on the ground if the vessel were unsupported by water. The "turn of the bilge" is the transition from the bottom of a hull to the sides of a hull.
Internally, the bilges (usu ...
, are removed before disassembly. Holes should be bored for ventilation and all flammable vapours are extracted.
Vessels are initially taken to a dry dock
A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...
or a pier, although a dry dock is considered more environmentally friendly because all spillage is contained and can easily be cleaned up. Floating is, however, cheaper than a dry dock. Storm water discharge facilities will stop an overflow of toxic liquid into the waterways. The carrier is then secured to ensure its stability. Often the propeller is removed beforehand to allow the water-craft to be moved into shallower water.
Workers must completely strip the ship down to a bare hull, with objects cut free using saws, grinders, abrasive cutting wheels, hand held shears, plasma
Plasma or plasm may refer to:
Science
* Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter
* Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral
* Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics
Biology
* Blood pla ...
and gas torches. Anything of value, such as spare parts and electronic equipment is sold for re-use, although labour costs mean that low value items are not economical to sell. The Basel Convention demands that all yards separate hazardous and non-hazardous waste and have appropriate storage units, and this must be done before the hull is cut up. Asbestos
Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...
, found in the engine room, is isolated and stored in custom-made plastic wrapping prior to being placed in secure steel containers, which are then landfilled.
Many hazardous wastes can be recycled into new products. Examples include lead-acid batteries or electronic circuit boards. Another commonly used treatment is cement
A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...
-based solidification and stabilization. Cement kiln
Cement kilns are used for the pyroprocessing stage of manufacture of portland and other types of hydraulic cement, in which calcium carbonate reacts with silica-bearing minerals to form a mixture of calcium silicates. Over a billion tonnes of ...
s are used because they can treat a range of hazardous wastes by improving physical characteristics and decreasing the toxicity and transmission of contaminants. A hazardous waste may also be "destroyed" by incinerating
Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of substances contained in waste materials. Industrial plants for waste incineration are commonly referred to as waste-to-energy facilities. Incineration and other high ...
it at a high temperature; flammable wastes can sometimes be burned as energy sources. Some hazardous waste types may be eliminated using pyrolysis
The pyrolysis (or devolatilization) process is the thermal decomposition of materials at elevated temperatures, often in an inert atmosphere. It involves a change of chemical composition. The word is coined from the Greek-derived elements ''py ...
in a high temperature electrical arc, in inert conditions to avoid combustion. This treatment method may be preferable to high temperature incineration in some circumstances such as in the destruction of concentrated organic waste types, including PCBs, pesticides and other persistent organic pollutants. Dangerous chemicals can also be permanently stored in landfills as long as leaching is prevented.
Valuable metals, such as copper or aluminum in electric cable, that are mixed with other materials may be recovered by the use of shredders and separators in the same fashion as e-waste recycling. The shredders cut the electronics into metallic and non-metallic pieces. Metals are extracted using magnetic separators, air flotation separator columns, shaker tables or eddy current
Eddy currents (also called Foucault's currents) are loops of electrical current induced within conductors by a changing magnetic field in the conductor according to Faraday's law of induction or by the relative motion of a conductor in a mag ...
s. The plastic almost always contains regulated hazardous waste (e.g., asbestos, PCBs, hydrocarbons) and cannot be melted down.
Large objects, such as engine parts, are extracted and sold as they become accessible. The hull is cut into 300-tonne sections, starting with the upper deck and working slowly downwards. While oxy-acetylene gas-torches are most commonly used, detonation charges can quickly remove large sections of the hull. These sections are transported to an electric arc furnace to be melted down into new ferrous products, though toxic paint must be stripped prior to heating.
Historical techniques
At Kaohsiung in the late 1960s and 70s, ships to be scrapped were tied up at berths in Dah Jen and Dah Lin Pu, at the southern end of Kaohsiung Harbor. There were a total of 24 breaking berths at Kaohsiung; each berth was rented by the scrapper from the Port Authority at a nominal rate of per square foot per month, and up to could be rented surrounding a long berth at a time. A typical 5,000-ton ship could be broken up in 25 to 30 days.[
The process began with "cleaning", a process in which subcontractors would come on board the ship to strip it of loose and flammable items, which were often resold in second-hand shops. After that, the cutting crews would start to dismantle the hull, stern-first; large sections were cut off the ship and moved via cranes and rigging taken from previously-scrapped ships. Because the scrapping at Kaohsiung was done at the docks, scrap metal was placed on trucks waiting to transport it to Kaohsiung's mills.][
]
Conventions and Regulations
The Basel Convention
The Basel Convention on the Control of Trans-boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal of 1989 was the first convention to environmentally govern the ship breaking industry. It has been ratified by 187 countries, including India and Bangladesh. It controls the international movement of hazardous wastes and for their environmentally sound management mainly through consent for the shipment between the authorities of the country exporting the hazardous wastes with the authorities of the importing country.
Though the Basel Convention has notably reduced illegal exports of hazardous wastes to countries that are unable to process and dispose of them in an environmentally sound manner, it has failed to define the minimum standards of recycling soundly. It also completely ignores important aspects such as workers' safety and falls short in overcoming bureaucratic barriers when it comes to communication between exporting and importing countries. Furthermore, the decision to scrap a ship is often made in international waters
The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed regiona ...
, where the convention has no jurisdiction.
The "Ban Amendment" to the Basel Convention was adopted in March 1994, prohibiting the export of hazardous waste
Hazardous waste is waste that has substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment. Hazardous waste is a type of dangerous goods. They usually have one or more of the following hazardous traits: ignitability, reactivity, co ...
s from OECD countries to non-OECD countries. The Amendment will enter into force 90 days after it has been ratified by at least three-quarters of the 87 countries that were Parties to the Convention at the time it was adopted. Croatia deposited the 66th ratification in September 2019, and the Ban Amendment will enter into force on December 5, 2019, twenty-five years after it was adopted. However, the European Union has already enacted the Ban Amendment unilaterally through the European Waste Shipment Regulation, which incorporates the Basel Convention and the Ban Amendment into European Union law. Since February 1993, the European Union has incorporated the Basel Convention into European law. In 2006, the European Union replaced its previous regulation with the Waste Shipment Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 (the WSR), which also unilaterally implemented the Ban Amendment, prohibiting the export of hazardous wastes from European Union member states to any developing (i.e. non-OECD), countries and regulating their export to OECD countries through the Basel Convention's prior informed consent mechanism. When the European Commission attempted to apply the WSR to end-of-life ships, it encountered numerous obstacles and evasion.
This is because, in enforcing the Ban Amendment, the European Waste WSR considers it illegal to recycle any ship that has started its last voyage from a European Union port in Bangladesh, China, India, or Pakistan, i.e., exporting EU State, regardless of the flag the ship flies. Simpler terms, these four non-OECD countries have consistently recycled around 95% of the world's tonnage. In fact, according to a study conducted by the European Commission in 2011, (at least) 91 percent of ships covered by the WSR disobeyed or circumvented its requirements. The European Commission admitted publicly that enforcing its own Waste Shipment Regulation to recycle ships had not been successful. The Commission, unable to wait for the HKC to take effect, began developing new legislation to regulate the recycling of European flagged ships. This led the European Commission in 2012 to propose the development of a new European Regulation on Ship Recycling.
The Hong Kong Convention
To overcome the difficulties of the Basel Convention in terms of the inordinate time and effort required in gaining the consent of all countries involved in its due time, and to highlight regulations that this convention left out, its governing body requested the International Maritime Organisation for a newer convention in 2004. Thus, the Hong Kong Convention came into existence. In essence, the Convention aims to ensure that ships, when being recycled after reaching the end of their operational lives, do not pose any unnecessary risks to human health, safety, and the environment. The convention covers regulations including:
# the design, construction, operation, and preparation of ships to facilitate safe and environmentally sound recycling, without compromising the safety and operational efficiency of ships;
# the operation of ship recycling facilities in a safe and environmentally sound manner; and
# the establishment of an appropriate enforcement mechanism for ship recycling (certification/reporting requirements).
With much more sound standards of ship recycling, easier implementation, and better supervision, the Hong Kong Convention was finally adopted in 2009. However, the Convention will only come into universal force 24 months after the date on which the following conditions are met:
# ratification or accession by 15 States,
# the fleet of the States that have ratified or acceded to represent at least 40 percent of world merchant shipping by gross tonnage, and
# the combined maximum annual ship recycling volume of the States during the preceding 10 years to constitute not less than 3 percent of the gross tonnage of the combined merchant shipping of the same States.
As of 30 November 2021, 17 countries have acceded to the HKC, making up 29.77% of the world's merchant shipping by gross tonnage, with a combined maximum annual ship recycling volume of the States at 2.6% of the gross tonnage of the combined merchant shipping of the same States. This leaves the second and third conditions yet to be fulfilled for the HKC to enter into force.
Nearly 96 of India's 120 operational ship recycling yards have achieved Statements of Compliance (SoC) with the Hong Kong Convention by various IACS class societies – including ClassNK, IRClass, Lloyd's Register
Lloyd's Register Group Limited (LR) is a technical and professional services organisation and a maritime classification society, wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and ...
, and RINA. In addition, a yard in Chattogram, Bangladesh has also become the first one to achieve an SoC by ClassNK in January 2020, having first achieved a RINA SoC in 2017. Furthermore, to encourage the growth of India's vital ship recycling sector, in November 2019, the Government of India acceded to the Hong Kong Convention for Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships and became the only South Asian country and major ship recycling destination so far to take such a positive step
The EU Ship Recycling Regulation
Most recently, in March 2012, the European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
proposed tougher regulations to ensure all parties take responsibility. The aim of the EUSRR was to facilitate the early ratification of the Hong Kong Convention; however, it differs from the HKC in the way yards are authorised and in its list of inventories of hazardous materials, or IHM. Under this regulation, if a vessel has a European flag, it must be disposed of in a shipyard on an EU "green list." The facilities would have to show that they are compliant and regulated internationally to bypass corrupt local authorities.
This list, as of 11 November 2020, comprises 43 yards, including 34 yards in Europe, 8 yards in Turkey, and 1 yard in the USA. The list excluded some of the most major ship recycling yards in India and Bangladesh, which have achieved SoCs with the HKC in various class societies. This exclusion has led to many ship owners changing the flag to evade the regulations, and many excluded countries to strive towards bringing the HKC into force as the universal regulation, arguing that it would be irrational if international shipping were regulated by multiple and competing standards.
Risks
Health risks
70% of ships are simply run ashore in developing countries for disassembly, where (particularly in older vessels) potentially toxic materials such as asbestos
Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...
, lead
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
, polychlorinated biphenyl
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are highly carcinogenic chemical compounds, formerly used in industrial and consumer products, whose production was banned in the United States by the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1979 and internationally by t ...
s and heavy metals
upright=1.2, Crystals of osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">lead.html" ;"title="osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead
Heavy metals are generally defined as ...
along with lax industrial safety
Occupational safety and health (OSH), also commonly referred to as occupational health and safety (OHS), occupational health, or occupational safety, is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at ...
standards pose a danger for the workers. Burns from explosions and fire, suffocation, mutilation from falling metal, cancer, and disease from toxins are regular occurrences in the industry. Asbestos was used heavily in ship construction until it was finally banned in most of the developed world in the mid-1980s. Currently, the costs associated with removing asbestos, along with the potentially expensive insurance and health risks, have meant that ship-breaking in most developed countries is no longer economically viable. Dangerous vapors and fumes from burning materials can be inhaled, and dusty asbestos-laden areas are commonplace.
Removing the metal for scrap can potentially cost more than the value of the scrap metal itself. In the developing world, however, shipyards can operate without the risk of personal injury lawsuits or workers' health claims, meaning many of these shipyards may operate with high health risks. Protective equipment is sometimes absent or inadequate. The sandy beaches cannot sufficiently support the heavy equipment, which is thus prone to collapse. Many are injured from explosions when flammable gas is not removed from fuel tanks. In Bangladesh, a local watchdog group claims that one worker dies a week and one is injured per a day on average.
The problem is caused by negligence from national governments, shipyard operators, and former ship owners disregarding the Basel Convention. According to the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights
The Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, formerly known as the National Labor Committee (until 2011), is a non-profit organization, non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) that investigates human and labor rights abuses committed ...
, workers who attempt to unionize are fired and then blacklisted. The employees have no formal contract or any rights, and sleep in over-crowded hostels. The authorities produce no comprehensive injury statistics, so the problem is underestimated. Child labour is also widespread: 20% of Bangladesh's ship-breaking workforce are below 15 years of age, mainly involved in cutting with gas torches.
There is, however, an active ship-breaker's union in Mumbai, India (Mumbai Port Trust Dock and General Employees’ Union) since 2003 with 15,000 members, which strikes to ensure fatality compensation. It has set up a sister branch in Alang, gaining paid holidays and safety equipment for workers since 2005. They hope to expand all along the South Asian coastline.
In the world’s largest ship recycling destination, Alang, safety awareness drives with hoardings, posters, films as well as training programmes for different categories of workers under the Safety Training and Labour Welfare Institute, safety evaluation by external teams, Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) including gloves, gumboot, goggles, and masks are provided to workers to mitigate the hazards of their work. In addition to this, GMB has also included regular medical examinations of workers exposed to bio-hazardous materials, provision of medical facilities at the Red Cross Hospital in Alang, mobile medical vans, and health awareness programmes.
Several United Nations committees are increasing their coverage of ship-breakers' human rights. In 2006, the International Maritime Organisation developed legally binding global legislation which concerns vessel design, vessel recycling and the enforcement of regulation thereof and a 'Green Passport' scheme. Water-craft must have an inventory of hazardous material before they are scrapped, and the facilities must meet health & safety requirements. The International Labour Organization created a voluntary set of guidelines for occupational safety in 2003. Nevertheless, Greenpeace found that even pre-existing mandatory regulation has had little noticeable effect for labourers, due to government corruption, yard owner secrecy and a lack of interest from countries who prioritise economic growth. There are also guards who look out for any reporters. To safeguard worker health, the report recommends that developed countries create a fund to support their families, certify carriers as 'gas-free' (i.e. safe for cutting) and to remove toxic materials in appropriate facilities before export. To supplement the international treaties, organisations such as the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights
The Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, formerly known as the National Labor Committee (until 2011), is a non-profit organization, non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) that investigates human and labor rights abuses committed ...
and ToxicsWatch Alliance are lobbying for improvements in the industry.
Environmental risks
In recent years, ship-breaking has become an issue of environmental concern
The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental, and social movement that seeks to manage and protect natural resources, including animal, fungus, and plant species as well as their habitat for the f ...
beyond the health of the yard workers. Many ship-breaking yards operate in developing nations with lax or no environmental law
Environmental law is a collective term encompassing aspects of the law that provide protection to the environment. A related but distinct set of regulatory regimes, now strongly influenced by environmental legal principles, focus on the manage ...
, enabling large quantities of highly toxic materials to escape into the general environment and causing serious health problems among ship-breakers, the local population, and wildlife. Environmental campaign groups such as Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
have made the issue a high priority for their activities.
Along the Indian subcontinent, ecologically-important mangrove forests, a valuable source of protection from tropical storms and monsoons, have been cut down to provide space for water-craft disassembly. In Bangladesh, for example, 40,000 mangrove trees were illegally chopped down in 2009. The World Bank has found that the country's beaching locations are now at risk from sea level rise. 21 fish and crustacean species have been wiped out in the country as a result of the industry as well. Lead, organotins such as tributyltin
Tributyltin (TBT) is an umbrella term for a class of organotin compounds which contain the (C4H9)3 Sn group, with a prominent example being tributyltin oxide. For 40 years TBT was used as a biocide in anti-fouling paint, commonly known as botto ...
in anti-fouling paints, polychlorinated organic compounds, by-products of combustion such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon
A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) is a class of organic compounds that is composed of multiple aromatic rings. The simplest representative is naphthalene, having two aromatic rings and the three-ring compounds anthracene and phenanthrene. ...
s, dioxins and furan
Furan is a heterocyclic organic compound, consisting of a five-membered aromatic ring with four carbon atoms and one oxygen atom. Chemical compounds containing such rings are also referred to as furans.
Furan is a colorless, flammable, highly ...
s are found in ships and pose a great danger to the environment.
The Basel Convention on the Control of Trans-boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal of 1989 has been ratified by 166 countries, including India and Bangladesh, and in 2004, End of Life Ships were subjected to its regulations. It aims to stop the transportation of dangerous substances to less developed countries and mandate the use of regulated facilities. Furthermore, the decision to scrap a ship is often made in international waters
The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed regiona ...
, where the convention has no jurisdiction.
The Hong Kong Convention is a compromise. It allows ships to be exported for recycling, as long as various stipulations are met: All water-craft must have an inventory and every shipyard needs to publish a recycling plan to protect the environment. The Hong Kong Convention was adopted in 2009 but with few countries signing the agreement.
However, nearly 96 of the 120 ship recycling yards in India have achieved Statements of Compliance (SoC) with the Hong Kong Convention by various IACS class societies – including ClassNK, IRClass, Lloyd’s Register
Lloyd's Register Group Limited (LR) is a technical and professional services organisation and a maritime classification society, wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and ...
, and RINA. In addition, a yard in Chattogram, Bangladesh has also become the first one to achieve an SoC by ClassNK in January 2020, having first achieved a RINA SoC in 2017. Furthermore, to encourage the growth of India’s vital ship recycling sector, in November 2019 the Government of India acceded to the Hong Kong Convention for Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships and became the only South Asian country and major ship recycling destination so far to take such a positive step.
In March 2012 the European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
proposed tougher regulations to ensure all parties take responsibility. Under these rules, if a vessel has a European flag, it must be disposed of in a shipyard on an EU "green list." The facilities would have to show that they are compliant, and it would be regulated internationally in order to bypass corrupt local authorities. However, there is evidence of ship owners changing the flag to evade the regulations. China's scrap industry has vehemently protested against the proposed European regulations. Although Chinese recycling businesses are less damaging than their South Asian counterparts, European and American ship-breakers comply with far more stringent legislation.
That being said, ship recycling yard owners have made investments into upgrading their recycling facilities and safety infrastructure in the recent past, including 100% impervious floors with drainage systems, setting up of hazardous waste processing facilities like the Common Hazardous Wastes Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facility (CHW-TSDF) in Alang, and adherence to various internationally recognised conventions. The ship recycling industry also produces about 4.5 million tons of re-rollable steel per year. That comes up to nearly 2% of total steel produced in India, coming from a process that does not exploit natural resources and thereby saves non-renewable natural resources and energy. Recycling of one ton of scrap saves 1.1 ton of iron ore
Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...
, 06-0.7 T of coking coal
Metallurgical coal or coking coal is a grade of coal that can be used to produce good-quality coke. Coke is an essential fuel and reactant in the blast furnace process for primary steelmaking. The demand for metallurgical coal is highly coupled ...
and around 0.2-0.3 T of fluxes. Specific energy consumption for production of steel through BF-BOF (primary) and EAF& IF (secondary routes) is 14 MJ/Kg and 11.7 MJ/ Kg respectively. Thus, it leads to savings in energy by 16–17%. It also reduces the water consumption and GHG emission by 40% and 58% respectively.
List of ship-breaking yards
The following are some of world's largest ship-breaking yards:
Bangladesh
* Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard
Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard is located in Faujdarhat, Sitakunda Upazila, Bangladesh along the Sitakunda coastal strip, north-west of Chittagong. Handling about a fifth of the world's total, it was the world's largest ship breaking yard, until ...
at Chittagong
Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in B ...
Belgium
* Galloo, Ghent
Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...
, formerly Van Heyghen Recycling
China
* Changjiang Ship Breaking yard, located in Jiangyin
Jiangyin (, Jiangyin dialect: ) is a county-level city on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, and is administered by Wuxi, Jiangsu province. Jiangyin is one of the most important transport hubs on the Yangtze River, it is also one of the most d ...
, China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
India
As of January 2020, India has a 30% share of ship breaking. Once India passes the planned "Recycling of Ships Act, 2019" which ratifies the , ships that are currently not coming for breaking to India from the treaty nations of USA, Europe, and Japan will begin arriving in India, thus doubling its global share of ship breaking to 60%. This will also double India's annual ship breaking revenue to US$2.2 billion.[India eyes 60 per cent share of global ship recycling business; higher GDP contribution](_blank)
Economic Times, 30 December 2019.
* Alang Ship Recycling Yard
Steel Industrials Kerala Limited
Pakistan
* Gadani Ship Breaking yard
Gadani ship-breaking yard is the world's third largest ship breaking yard located across a long beachfront at Gadani, Pakistan. The yard consists of 132 ship-breaking plots."Record 107 ships dismantled at Gaddani" by Parvaiz Ishfaq Rana, ''Daw ...
Turkey
* Aliağa Ship Breaking Yard
Aliağa is a town and a district of Izmir Province in the Aegean Region of Turkey. The town is situated at about north of Izmir. Aliağa has a large port, mainly for oil and bulk cargo. Its economic activity is based on tourism, shipbreaking, ...
, at Aliağa
Aliağa is a town and a district of Izmir Province in the Aegean Region of Turkey. The town is situated at about north of Izmir. Aliağa has a large port, mainly for oil and bulk cargo. Its economic activity is based on tourism, shipbreaking, ...
United Kingdom
* Able UK, Graythorpe Dock, Teesside
Teesside () is a built-up area around the River Tees in the north of England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name was initially used as a county borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire.
Historically a hub for heavy manu ...
United States
* SA Recycling, Brownsville, Texas
Brownsville () is a city in Cameron County in the U.S. state of Texas. It is on the western Gulf Coast in South Texas, adjacent to the border with Matamoros, Mexico. The city covers , and has a population of 186,738 as of the 2020 census. It ...
* International Shipbreaking, Brownsville, Texas
* Mare Island Dry Docks, Vallejo, California
List of ship breaking yards
This is a list of notable ship breaking yards:
Gallery
File:Safe Accesses to the ships during recycling.jpg, Safe accesses to the ships during recycling
File:End of the life vessel beached in ship recycling yard.jpg, Ship recycling in Alang
Alang is a census town in Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Because it is home to the Alang Ship Breaking Yard, Alang beaches are considered the world's largest ship graveyard.
Demographics
As of the 2001 Indian census, Al ...
File:Chittagong Ship breaking yard.JPG, Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking
File:Impermeable Floor at the Recycling Facilities.jpg, Cutter-man in ship recycling yard
File:Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking (7).JPG, Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking
File:Ship recycling yard workers.jpg, Impermeable floor in ship recycling yard
File:Window cut for Ventilation & illumination of hull for stability.png, Window cut for Ventilation & illumination during ship recycling
File:Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking (6).JPG, Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking
File:Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking (2).JPG, Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking
File:Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking (1).JPG, Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking
File:Beached vessel hull cut for stability.png, Beached end of the life vessel cut in zig-zag for stability during ship recycling
File:Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking (3).JPG, Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking
File:Window cut for Ventilation & illumination of hull during ship recycling.png, Window cut for Ventilation & illumination of hull during ship recycling
File:Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking (4).JPG, Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking
File:Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking (5).JPG, Jafrabad Chittagong shipbreaking
File:Shipbreakingbangladesh.jpg, Ship-breaking in Sitakunda
File:Shipbreaking Yard Bhatiari, Sitakunda.jpg, Shipbreaking Yard Bhatiari, Sitakunda
File:Worlds biggest ship breaking yard in Bangladesh by Idolhunter Lckuang.jpg, Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard
File:Dhaka - boats in shipyard at Buriganga River.JPG, Dhaka shipyard on Buriganga River
File:Safe Accesses to the beached end of the life ships for recycling.jpg, Safe access to beached vessel in Alang
Alang is a census town in Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Because it is home to the Alang Ship Breaking Yard, Alang beaches are considered the world's largest ship graveyard.
Demographics
As of the 2001 Indian census, Al ...
File:Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard (4115574808).jpg, Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard
See also
* Bo'ness
Borrowstounness (commonly known as Bo'ness ( )) is a town and former burgh and seaport on the south bank of the Firth of Forth in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Historically part of the county of West Lothian, it is a place within the Falki ...
* ''Clemenceau'' disposal controversy
* Flotsam, jetsam, lagan and derelict
In maritime law, flotsam'','' jetsam'','' lagan'','' and derelict are specific kinds of shipwreck. The words have specific nautical meanings, with legal consequences in the law of admiralty and marine salvage. A shipwreck is defined as the r ...
* Marine debris
* Marine pollution
Marine pollution occurs when substances used or spread by humans, such as industrial waste, industrial, agricultural pollution, agricultural and municipal solid waste, residential waste, particle (ecology), particles, noise, excess carbon dioxid ...
* ''Shipbreakers'' (film), by National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...
* Ship decommissioning
Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to placing a warship in ...
* ''Ship Breaker
''Ship Breaker'' is a 2010 young adult novel by Paolo Bacigalupi set in a post-apocalyptic future. Human civilization is in decline for ecological reasons. The polar ice caps have melted and New Orleans is underwater. On the Gulf Coast nea ...
'', a young-adult novel by Paolo Bacigalupi
Paolo Tadini Bacigalupi (born August 6, 1972) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He has won the Hugo, Nebula, John W. Campbell, Compton Crook, Theodore Sturgeon, and Michael L. Printz awards, and has been nominated for the Na ...
* Scrap
Scrap consists of Recycling, recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap Waste valorization, has monetary ...
* Wrecking (shipwreck) Wrecking is the practice of taking valuables from a shipwreck which has foundered or run aground close to shore. Often an unregulated activity of opportunity in coastal communities, wrecking has been subjected to increasing regulation and evolved i ...
Green Ship Recycling
* List of dry docks
This is a list of the largest dry dock
A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks ar ...
* List of the largest shipbuilding companies
* List of shipbuilders and shipyards
This is a list of notable shipbuilders and shipyards:
Africa Egypt
* Suez shipyard
* Alexandria Shipyard
Asia Azerbaijan
* Baku Shipyard
Bangladesh
* FMC Dockyard Limited
* Ananda Shipyard and Shipways
* Bashundhara Steel & Engineering
* Kh ...
* Israel Shipyards
Israel Shipyards is one of the largest shipbuilding and repair facilities in the eastern Mediterranean. The company also operates the first and only privately owned port in Israel.
The company’s facilities are located at the Kishon Port (part ...
References
Further reading
* Contains an extensive section on the shipbreaking industry in India and Bangladesh.
* Ships scrapped include Mauretania and much of the German Fleet at Scapa Flow. Ships listed with owners and dates sold.
* Breaking Ships follows the demise of the Asian Tiger, a ship destroyed at one of the twenty ship-breaking yards along the beaches of Chittagong. BBC Bangladesh correspondent Roland Buerk takes us through the process-from beaching the vessel to its final dissemination, from wealthy shipyard owners to poverty-stricken ship cutters, and from the economic benefits for Bangladesh to the pollution of its once pristine beaches and shorelines.
*
* Analysis of the economics of shipbreaking, the status of worldwide reform efforts, and occupational health and safety of shipbreaking including results of interviewing Alang shipbreakers.
* Siddiquee, N.A. 2004. Impact of ship breaking on marine fish diversity of the Bay of Bengal.DFID SUFER Project, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 46 pp.
* Siddiquee, N. A., Parween, S., and Quddus, M. M. A., Barua, P., 2009 ‘Heavy Metal Pollution in sediments at ship breaking area of Bangladesh ‘Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, 6 (3) : 7–12
External links
NGO Platform on Shipbreaking
OSHA Fact Sheet – Shipbreaking
Regulatory information on Ship recycling
Bangladesh ship breaking photos
The Ship-Breakers
at ''National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
.''
The Ship-Breakers
at ''National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
.''
{{Authority control
Demolition
Ship disposal
Vehicle recycling