South Asian beaches target of new EU ship recycling rules

Brussels

EUROPEAN, Turkish and Chinese recyclers are set to benefit from strict new EU rules on breaking up old ships, but the practice of dismantling them on beaches in South Asia at great human and environmental cost will still be hard to stop.

Of all 1,026 ocean going ships recycled in 2014, 641 were taken apart on beaches in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, according to figures of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, which campaigns for an end to hazardous scrapping on beaches.