Sustainability and Environmental Concerns in Ship Recycling Industry

This report provides a comprehensive overview of sustainability concepts within the maritime industry, with a specific focus on ship recycling. It delves into the main issues plaguing the ship recycling industry, including significant environmental pollution due to a lack of standards and worker safety concerns. The report highlights the poor working conditions of employees, the current ship recycling methods, and the environmental impacts of these operations, including the release of harmful gases and toxic waste. It explores ways to mitigate these environmental damages, such as enforcing international regulations like the Hong Kong Convention and investing in cleaner operational equipment. The report also examines changes in ship building over time, fuel requirements, and technical difficulties in ship recycling. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of sustainable practices and adhering to industry standards and laws to ensure worker and environmental safety. The report cites several sources to support its findings.

Concepts of Sustainability in
Maritime Industry

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
FINDINGS.......................................................................................................................................3
Main Issues Plaguing the Ship Recycling Industries...................................................................3
Working Condition of Employees within the Ship Recycling Industries....................................3
How Ships are currently Recycled..............................................................................................4
Environmental Conditions due to Ship Recycling Industry’s Operations...................................4
Ways to Deal with Prior Environmental Conditions...................................................................5
Changes in Ship Building Over the Years...................................................................................5
Changes in Fuel Requirements of Ships......................................................................................6
Technical Difficulties in Ship Recycling.....................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Ship recycling is the strategic process through which of ships of various sizes are
disposed off by breaking up of the ships so that their parts and materials can be sold to interested
parties for re use, or scrapped off for recycle into other products. Modern ships only have a life
cycle that makes them operable for 25 to 30 years maximum, after which metal fatigue,
corrosion and lack of replaceable parts in the market render them ineffective for further use
while maintaining to health and safety guidelines relating to the ship’s maintenance (Hiremath,
Pandey and Asolekar, 2016). This is why sustainability of ships within the maritime industries is
such an important concept.
FINDINGS
Main Issues Plaguing the Ship Recycling Industries
The are two immensely big issues that plague the ship recycling industries in the present
day. One of these is the immense environmental pollution that ship recycling causes due to its
operations, mainly in developing industries due to lack of standards and authority mandated
environmental laws and regulations (Hiremath, Pandey and Asolekar, 2016). This has become a
major problem of ship recycling industries as in order to not cause significant harm to the
environment through their operations, ship recycling businesses are mandated to invest heavily
into their recycling equipment, which they don’t, effectively causing enormous environmental
damage by their operations.
The second biggest issue that ship recycling industries face is the subpar worker safety
conditions and the rampant violation of labour rights with ship recycling business, mainly in
developing countries (Du and et.al., 2018). This is such a major issue of the entire ship recycling
industries as the operations of ship recycling business are immensely labour intensive and the
lack of proper safety equipment, conditions and laws has made the entire ship recycling
industries to be considered amongst one of the world’s most dangerous professions.

Working Condition of Employees within the Ship Recycling Industries
The working conditions of employees within the ship recycling industries is immensely
bad and has caused the entire industries to be considered amongst the most dangerous
professions in the world. As ship recycling is a very labour intensive process that has workers
break down parts of ship through various means, it is quite common for workers in the ship
recycling industries to suffer major burns from fire and explosions during operations (Raju and
Anandh, 2019). As ship breakage also releases numerous toxins and poisons into the air which
are then inhaled by workers ignorantly due to lack of knowledge and safety equipment, the
number of workers that suffer from numerous diseases and cancer is quite high amongst workers
operating in the ship recycling industries. Workers are also placed into greats risks of mutilation
by the broken parts of ships falling on them during ship recycling operations.
How Ships are currently Recycled
There are several different ways through which a ship is broken down so that its parts can
be scavenged or recycled. The most common method involved breaking the entire ship into
smaller parts, which can further be dismantled for recycling or scavenging operations. Ships are
brought to the shore near a ship recycling business where labourers or machines pull the vessel to
the so that they can be dismantled. Before the dismantling process is initiated, the entire fuel
within the ship is procured with the intention to avoid disastrous fatalities during dismantling
process. Gas torches that burn oxy acetylene with addition of blunt equipment are used by
labourers with the intention to cut metal hull so that internal parts can be scavenged or recycled
(Ocampo and Pereira, 2019). Most of the steel within the ship is recycled efficiently for new
purposes while the premium quality plates of steel within ships are reheated and used as
reinforcement bars in construction businesses. Parts of the ship which cannot be scavenged are
transported to heating mills and furnaces where they are melted down and reshaped and recycled
into usable products and materials.
Environmental Conditions due to Ship Recycling Industry’s Operations
The operations conducted by ship recycling industries pose immense concerns for the
environment as well in addition to the health and safety of their workers. This is a major issue
primarily resulting from the operations of ship recycling businesses operating within developing
countries. As ships recycling process involves a lot of breaking down of parts of the ship,

harmful, poisonous gases are rampantly leaked into the environment in addition to poisoning the
workers. This has immensely negative effect on the area’s local population, its wildlife and their
habitats as the amount of poisonous gases in the air steadily keeps increasing (Kurt and et.al.,
2017). The operations of ship recycling industries in developing countries has also resulted in the
vanquish of 21 different crustacean and fish species from the oceans due to the toxic waste
materials being dumped into the sea due to its proximity to ship recycling businesses posing even
greater environmental concerns.
Ways to Deal with Prior Environmental Conditions
One of the ways to deal with the immense damages that operations of ship recycling
industries cause to the environment and oceans is to enforce local and international
environmental laws and regulations upon the operations of ship recycling businesses. Many laws
and regulations have been created for these purposes but aren’t enforced in developing countries
leading to massive damage to environment. One of the primary ways to address this issue is to
enforce the ‘Hong Kong International Convention for the Safety and Environmentally Sound
Recycling of the Ships’, 2009 which mandates ship recycling businesses to adhere to various
industry standards and also keep inventory of all hazardous materials released from their
operations which can cause damage to their workers or the environment (Du and et.al., 2017).
There are also other locally mandated laws such as the European Commission law of 2012,
which mandates all European ships have to be recycled exclusively at ship recycling businesses
which have been pre-approved by relevant authorities so that their operations do not endanger
the environment. The environmental damage of ship recycling industries can also be mitigated if
business choose to themselves invest into operational equipment which does not produce such
hazardous waste materials which then have to be dumped into the environment. Investment into
new operational equipment will also increase the performance and efficiency of ship recycling
business and also increase their brand value and reputation in the ship recycling industries further
increasing their productivity and profitability in the maritime markets (Jain, Pruyn and Hopman,
2017). Ship recycling businesses can also implement into their operations various filtration
systems which can filter and negate the immensely hazardous waste products generated due to
their operations and help the environment.

Changes in Ship Building Over the Years
As humans have consistently relied on ships in order to travel over oceans around the
world, the methods used to build these ships have also changed drastically over the years. This
has been a direct result of the advancement in technology, engineering and production capability
of the society with modern ships barely resembling ships built in the past. In the past ships were
made on basic designs with humans doing most of the heavy lifting and transporting the ship in
groups. Both the designs and materials used to build ships were rudimentary with ships often
ending up crumbled on the ocean floors due to storms (Ozturkoglu, Kazancoglu and Ozkan-
Ozen, 2019). In comparison modern ships are built with high quality steel on engineering marvel
designs that are outfitted with numerous gadgets and tools such as magnetic compasses,
SONAR, communication radios and dishes along with IoT devices that monitor and record the
performance of various parts of the ship, informing the captain when any part needs changing.
Ship are built using cranes and heavy duty machines with even the scale of ships increasing in
the modern age. Modern ships are also sometimes built in various individual sections which are
later combined using cranes and heavy duty equipment, something which was undreamt of in
earlier days where the entire hull of the ship was constructed in one piece to provide necessary
strength.
Changes in Fuel Requirements of Ships
With changes to the design, technology, engineering and scale of ships the fuel
requirements of the ships have also changed over the years. With the invention of the steam
engine, naval engineers applied the concept to ships with the ships running on steam as fuel
(Hunsucker and et.al., 2018). As the prices of fossil fuels have also continued to rise, naval
engineers have also adopted other innovative designs that make use rotor sails, turbo sails and
wing sails in order to make use of different kinds of natural energy sources as fuels to run ships.
Most modern ships run on refined oil.
Technical Difficulties in Ship Recycling
There are also various technical difficulties in ship recycling that plague the operations of
businesses in ship recycling industries. As modern ships are immensely large in size they require
immense labour and machinery to transport to the recycling hubs for dismantling. Modern ships
are built with high quality steel for increased durability, but this also presents issues when the

steel is to be cut for dismantling the ships exterior, with high grade heating equipment and
torches needed to penetrate the steel reinforcements (Moncayo, 2016). This places the business’s
ship recycling operations in jeopardy as any accidents or mishaps can set the entire workplace on
fire and is a major technical difficulty in ship recycling.
CONCLUSION
Based on the findings of this report, it can be concluded that as modern ships can only
operate effectively and be maintained for an average duration of 25 to 30 years, the concept of
sustainability within the maritime industries is immensely significant, as it allows the owners of
old and ineffective ships to recycle or scrap their ships so that usable raw materials and parts can
be scavenged off for further use or sale into the maritime markets. Ship recycling industries need
to adhere to industry standards and local, international laws so that they can ensure worker and
environmental safety.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Du, Z. and et.al., 2017. Challenges and solutions for ship recycling in China. Ocean Engineering.
137. pp.429-439.
Du, Z. and et.al., 2018. Hazardous materials analysis and disposal procedures during ship
recycling. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 131. pp.158-171.
Hiremath, A.M., Pandey, S.K. and Asolekar, S.R., 2016. Development of ship-specific recycling
plan to improve health safety and environment in ship recycling yards. Journal of
Cleaner Production. 116. pp.279-298.
Hiremath, A.M., Pandey, S.K. and Asolekar, S.R., 2016. Development of ship-specific recycling
plan to improve health safety and environment in ship recycling yards. Journal of
Cleaner Production. 116. pp.279-298.
Hunsucker, J.T. and et.al., 2018. Uncertainty Analysis of Methods Used to Measure Ship Fuel
Oil Consumption. Fort Lauderdale. Available at doi: http://www. imo.
org/en/OurWork/Documents/Uncertainty_Analysis_in_Ship_Fuel_Oil_Consumption.
pdf. Accessed. 11(04). p.2018.
Jain, K.P., Pruyn, J.F.J. and Hopman, J.J., 2017. Material flow analysis (MFA) as a tool to
improve ship recycling. Ocean Engineering. 130. pp.674-683.
Kurt, R.E. and et.al., 2017. Investigation of occupational noise exposure in a ship recycling yard.
Ocean Engineering. 137. pp.440-449.
Moncayo, G.A., 2016. International law on ship recycling and its interface with EU law. Marine
pollution bulletin. 109(1). pp.301-309.
Ocampo, E.S. and Pereira, N.N., 2019. Can ship recycling be a sustainable activity practiced in
Brazil?. Journal of cleaner production. 224. pp.981-993.
Ozturkoglu, Y., Kazancoglu, Y. and Ozkan-Ozen, Y.D., 2019. A sustainable and preventative
risk management model for ship recycling industry. Journal of Cleaner Production.
238. p.117907.
Raju, M.S.P. and Anandh, A.P., 2019. Sustainability in Ship Recycling Process. Available at
SSRN 3355188.