What is Green Ship Recycling?

In todays times when recycling and re-using goods and products become an important requirement, even ships are recycled. With the rise in awareness towards maritime environment, there have been several changes in the process of ship breaking, which have given rise to a new term green ship recycling.

There are several reasons which that have made the concept of green ship recycling famous. But the main ones are To isolate those parts of the ship which are harmful and dangerous to both marine and human lives To conserve marine ecosystem by proper discarding ship breaking waste Reusing those parts of the ship that are important and can be re-used successfully while making new ships, thus saving resources. To benefit the ship owner by optimum utility of the ships parts

Main components of the ship that are reused include steel parts and other parts in the interior of the ship. Green ship recycling was initially the carried out only by developed countries, however today, even developing countries have started inculcating processes that promote green ship breaking. One of the major harmful materials that are disposed off with the help of green ship recycling process is asbestos. Asbestos has been banned from being used in ships from the past two decades. But the ships in which asbestos had been used initially need to be recycled. Continuous exposure to asbestos can cause problems not just to the marine life forms but also to the people aboard the ship. This is why ships with asbestos need to be recycled with far more caution. Many green ship recycling labs are so well equipped that the success rate for the disposal of the harmful materials is nearly around 99%. Apart from US and the other developed countries in Europe, shipping concerns in nations like China, India and Bangladesh also contribute substantially to the process of green ship recycling. Throughout the world, seminars and symposiums are conducted in order to make more ship builders and proprietors aware of the benefit of green ship breaking. In these meetings and seminars, along with the advantages of ship recycling, various feasible methods to carry out the process of ship breaking are also provided. These methods are cost efficient and help the shipping concerns to ease the process of ship recycling. In order to become a part of the green ship recycling process, a ship has to have a certain document. This document is known as the Green Passport. Green ship recycling because of its success rate can become even more famous and important to the marine industry in the future. Added with the benefit of more technological developments, it can be hoped that the process of ship breaking will become even more common and feasible across all nations in the world.

From the ship recycling perspective, 2004 to late 2008, were perhaps the slowest periods in the history of ship recycling. With the freight markets booming, there were very few ships that were available for recycling. As a result there was almost a fivefold increase in demo prices, so scrap prices went from almost $150 per long ton to about peaked at about $800 per long ton.

we start questioning the capacity of the ship recycling industry. Since we are talking about prices, I put together a little slide saying what are some of the key factors that affect the price of a ship for scrap? Obviously, the first element is supply versus demand; when theres a strong supply, that affects, it lowers the price. because I think the biggest change thats coming to our industry is the area of safe and responsible ship recycling. Thats a good thing. Ship recycling worldwide is paying more attention to worker safety issues and environmental issues, and the adoption of the IMO Convention is a big step forward. What about the IMO Convention? Again, this is a huge area of discussion. I would just like to simplify the convention what it means to the ship recycling industry. First of all, I think it is the most comprehensive and consequential, legislation or direction that the industry has seen. The key items in this convention basically is that the ships going for recycling first have to conduct an inventory of hazardous material. Then, there has to be an appropriate ship recycling plan that identifies where these hazardous materials are, and how these materials are going to be safely removed and disposed. It is also focused on workers safety at yards. Again, Ive simplified this there is a lot more to the convention, as we all know, and I can put 20 bullets down there.

Along with the convention, there are funds and programs that are available. Grants that can encourage ship recycling to move forward, which we have never seen in the past.

I also put together some myths and facts about the ship recycling industry, because whenever I see the ship recycling industry being discussed, especially in the media, you normally see more negative things than positive, and so there are a bunch of slides that I put in there you know, about what the myths are. We have seen pictures of a lady carrying asbestos, and how asbestos is handled, which is not true today, especially in India and China and in Turkey. The way workers lift steel, with no cranes, no proper helmets and protection equipment these are actual pictures of workers in yards. Myths about things being burned in open fires which you dont normally see these days. Theres a picture that we often see in newspapers about a very dirty beach, and

saying the industry is unlicensed, uncertified again, a lot of certification. Just today one of the yards sent me a certificate which shows they are the first yard in India which received a BVQI certification for ISO 30,000. You have yards that are 9,000; 14,000; 18,000; 30,000 whatever certificates you can get out there are certified, and they are audited by major societies. Edwina has audited some of these yards and so forth. Ship recycling generally still has a poor image there are still concerns of renegotiations, worker rights issues and environmental concerns, but the fact is, especially in India, this is an industry which is heavily regulated. There are more than 20 licensing bodies a lot of independent certification agencies, and more interestingly, these owners do send a lot of their own technical teams to go and inspect various yards before they commit their vessels to these yards. The credentials there is improvement at yards, but more importantly, there is a big myth which I have not addressed, here, and I would like to at least address quickly, right now. The general perception in the community in the shipping community that the reason India, Pakistan, Bangladesh can pay high prices is because they have cheap labor and they flaunt environmental regulations that may be harshly true I cant allocate any percentage for this, but one element thats almost never discussed is the element of reuse. One big component why the price is so high in these countries is because the majority of the ship, depending on the type of the vessel from 70 90% of the ship is recycled and reused. What I mean by that is every nut, every bolt, machineries, toilet seats, cabins, furniture, equipment, is reused, and any time you reuse a product, and your value for the product, you end up generating a better bottom line than when you have to recycle a product. To me, the reuse is a better element than even recycling. Its greener and it adds better value to the price of a vessel.

In closing, Ladies and Gentlemen, I think a healthy vibrant ship recycling industry is good for the environment, and why I say that first of all, steel from ships is much more environmentally friendly steel, than steel produced from iron ore. What about old ships of sea? If we dont have a vibrant ship recycling industry, what happens to old ships at CAPITAL LINK NEW YORK LONDON - ATHENS 13 sea? Does that create more accidents? More pollution? What about ships that are abandoned? Those who have seen some of the areas in West Africa, for example small ships that are sitting there in tens or hundreds, because they are too small they cannot be taken anywhere. Theres no place to recycle them. We need this industry. We need this industry for the safe disposal of old vessels. We need this industry, where there is a registry of value. Where ship or scrap is not a liability its actually an asset. It is an industry that creates jobs more than 300,000

worldwide, and it is essential for the growth of local economies. The majority of the steel used in Bangladesh comes from ship steel. Finally, what I would like to leave this seminar is with the thought that all stakeholders must come together, otherwise an asset based industry can soon turn into a liability. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for listening.