Slow progress on recycling
Ten years on, the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships has yet to come into force; meanwhile, EU has gone ahead with its own recycling rules
TWENTY years ago, how to dispose of old ships past their useful lives was not really an issue. It was accepted that they would end up on a beach and cut into pieces.
The political environment has changed massively since then due to the twin concerns of environmental damage caused by beaching and the working conditions on the demolition sites.
Responding to these concerns, in 2009, the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships was adopted at a conference held in Hong Kong. It covers the design, construction, operation and maintenance of ships, and preparation for ship recycling in order to facilitate safe and environmentally sound recycling, without compromising the safety and operational efficiency of ships.
Under the treaty, ships are required to carry an inventory of hazardous materials, specific to each ship. Ship recycling yards are required to provide a plan specific to each individual ship to be recycled, stating the manner in which each ship will be recycled, depending on its particulars and its inventory.
Unfortunately, 10 years on, the treaty has yet to come into force. It will do so 24 months after at least 15 countries that represent not less than 40 per cent of the gross tonnage of the world's merchant shipping accede to it. In addition, during the preceding 10 years, the combined maximum annual ship recycling volume of these countries must constitute not less than 3 per cent of the gross tonnage of their combined merchant shipping fleets.
However, it did get a boost in March when Japan became the 10th country to accede to the convention.
According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), contracting countries to the Hong Kong Convention are now: Belgium, Denmark, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Panama, the Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Serbia and Turkey. They represent approximately 23.1 per cent of the gross tonnage of the world's merchant shipping fleet. Their combined annual ship recycling volume during the preceding 10 years is 1,709,955 GT, i.e. 0.57 per cent of the merchant shipping tonnage of the same countries.
That is another way of saying there is a long way to go. But IMO, several individual countries and the international shipping community are trying hard to achieve adoption. Additionally, many shipbreaking yards have voluntarily applied for certificates of compliance from classification societies, verifying that they operate in accordance with the rules laid down in the convention.
EU ship recycling rules
Last Friday, Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), in cooperation with the IMO secretariat, hosted an international seminar on how to promote sustainable ship recycling and how to move forward for the early entry into force of the Hong Kong Convention. It is hoped that it has achieved something.
However, the EU has gone ahead with its own ship recycling rules. From Dec 31, 2018, the EU Ship Recycling Regulation has required all ships flying the flag of an EU member country to use an approved ship recycling facility included in a European list.
Also in December, the European Commission published the fourth version of that list, adding six new yards and taking the total up to 26. It includes 23 facilities located in EU countries, and for the first time ever, three located in non-EU member states. Two are in Turkey and one in the US.
That means, of course, that EU flag ships can't be recycled in the main recycling centres in Asia.
That really should not be too much of a concern to most of the world's fleet, which isn't flagged in the EU. On the other hand, it is an issue that the the major ship recyclers are being denied access to a significant market.
That is one reason why the European Community Shipowners' Associations (ECSA) argues that a sustainable global ship-recycling industry requires the efforts of both the EU and the European shipping sector.
ECSA has recently released the report of a fact-finding mission to India's ship-recycling facilities.
According to ECSA, the facilities it visited exhibited huge strides made over the past three years to raise standards, guided by the Hong Kong Convention and the prospect of being included in the EU list.
The mission was struck by "the willingness of the side of the ship-recycling facilities, the Ship Recycling Industries Association (India) (SRIA) and the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) to transparently demonstrate and critically discuss the actual state of play towards healthy, safe and environmentally-sound recycling operations in Alang".
Getting on the EU list
ECSA says that the EU should apply its own principles of sustainable development also in their relations with third countries and give the audited facilities a fair chance to get on the EU list.
It says the Hong Kong Convention is the only applicable international instrument that can provide a meaningful regulation for the development of sustainable global recycling facilities.
It adds: "As a matter of priority, EU member states must now ratify the Hong Kong Convention and, in conjunction with the EU Commission, strive to ensure key recycling states and flag states follow suit."
That is quite right but those non-EU, Hong Kong Convention-compliant shipbreaking facilities that are not on the EU approved list will have to be put on it before countries including China, India and Pakistan have an incentive to accede to the convention.
