2.1 What is ship recycling?
Ships that have outdone their lifespan must be dismantled, after which their parts are treated as waste. This process is also known as ship breaking or ship recycling, and the ships in this life stage are often referred to as end-of-life ships. Ship recycling can occur in various ways. One is through dry docking and another by sailing the vessel onto the shore. The latter process is also known under the term beaching. Beaching has attracted a lot of criticism, as it is not regarded as safe for the people conducting the work or the environment suffering from various oils and other components and substances leaking into the soil, groundwater and ocean. More than 70 % of the ships that annually need to be demolished are done so in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh where the beaching method is used.(1) ‘The Problem - NGO Shipbreaking Platform’. The World Labour Organisation has categorised the employment of ship dismantlers as the most dangerous in the world.(2) ‘The Toxic Tide’; The same has been said by The Global Trade Union IndustriAll, cf. Ship recycling: reducing human and environmental impacts, above no 5, 3. With that said, ship recycling is an important part of the circular economy as it allows for the reuse of steel and various other components, which reduces the need to use mining as a way of gaining new steel.(3) Ship recycling: reducing human and environmental impacts, above no 5, 3. Thus, ship recycling also contributes positively by reducing the non-environmental friendly practice of mining. However, one may argue that ship recycling needs to be safe and environmentally friendly in order to properly reduce the negative effects of mining, as it would otherwise just equalise the absence of mining.
As with many things, profit is also a known decisive factor for shipowners to choose beaching over recycling at safe shipyards. It is estimated that the difference in profit by choosing the beaching method is US$ 3-7 million per recycled vessel.(4)‘Shipbreaking Judgment’.
As a result of the impact of the ship recycling industry on human health and the environment, various legal instruments have been initiated to encounter the environmental, health and safety issues correlated with beaching (and ship recycling in general).