Tag: EU Regulation on Ship Recycling

The European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) and the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) have rejected the concept of the ship recycling license, developed by consultants for the European Commission.

The Clean Shipping Coalition has criticized Maersk for its plans to consider to flag out end-of-life vessels from the Danish or other European registries in order to circumvent the European Ship Recycling Regulation.

The European Commission has published technical guidance for ship recycling facilities that want to be approved under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation. The European Union (EU) mirrors with this step the call by environmental and human rights NGOs for a relocation of ship recycling to platforms that can ensure sustainable practices.

The European Commission has published technical guidance for ship recycling facilities seeking approval under EU Ship Recycling Regulation. The document provides clarifications in accordance with the relevant Hong Kong Convention provisions and taking into account the relevant guidelines of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the International Labour Standards (ILO) and of the Basel Convention.

The European Commission opened the application procedure for the European List of ship recycling facilities on Friday, 18 December. Facilities located outside EU Member States are invited to submit their applications before 1 July 2016. The European Commission will review the applications and then publish a first version of the European List before 31 December 2016 in accordance with the EU Ship Recycling Regulation. Early in 2016, the EC will also issue guidelines on the requirements for ship recyclers and independent verifiers certifying the yards.

 Ratification and compliance with the Hong Kong Convention is the best way to ensure sustainable recycling of vessels according to the Danish Shipowners’ Association, both in terms of safety and environmental impact.It is a natural part of a ship’s life cycle to be taken out of service for dismantling and recycling. Right now there is an ongoing debate of whether the “beaching” recycling method used in South Asia should be banned. The reason why the debate often flares up is that 60% of the world’s vessels are dismantled on the beaches of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh  and that these area in particular have been notorious for poor safety and environment conditions. In addition the requirements for the EU white list of yards based on the EU Ship Recycling Regulation risk to become an a priori exclusion of South Asian yards.But Alang is not just Alang – writes Director Maria Bruun Skipper, Danish Shipowners’ Association, in an article from Spring 2015, following a visit to Alang, India. The point is that we all have a responsibility to ensure that the recycling is done without compromising neither the health and safety of the workers nor the environment:“A couple of the yards we visited ...

  The NGO Shipbreaking Platform welcomed IndustriALL’s “Campaign to clean up Shipbreaking – the world’s most dangerous job”. IndustriALL, which represents 50 million workers in 140 countries, calls upon governments to finally make the shipbreaking industry safer for workers. The trade unions stress the precarious working conditions for shipbreaking workers in South Asia, usually migrant workers hired by sub-contractors, as well as the exposure to various health threats including toxic substances and industrial accidents. The global union launched a dedicated website featuring campaign materials, related documents and videos, as well as a model letter to governments. In November 2014, the IndustriALL Global Union World Conference on Shipbuilding-Shipbreaking, which Platform founder and policy advisor Ingvild Jenssen attended in Nagasaki, Japan, unanimously approved a resolution demanding that shipbuilding, shipbreaking and shipping states expedite ratification of the Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships. Moreover, the resolution calls onto countries to apply the EU Ship Recycling Regulation as well as requirements under the Basel Convention and the ILO Guidelines to make the industry safer for workers. “A strong and international trade union movement is absolutely necessary for the shipbreaking industry,” says Patrizia Heidegger, Executive Director of the Platform. ...

  The NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a global coalition of 19 environmental, human rights and labour rights organisations campaigning for safe, clean and just ship recycling worldwide, came together for its annual general meeting in Izmir, Turkey. Members and representatives from organisations based in Europe and South Asia, where the largest shipbreaking countries are located, participated in the meeting. Moreover, external experts such as prominent lawyers and labour rights activists joined the meeting in order to discuss the current situation of the global ship recycling industry. The Platform visited the ship recycling yards located in Aliaga, Turkey. In light of the discussions surrounding the application of yards to become approved under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, the Platform will issue a briefing paper on ship recycling in Turkey. All facilities in Turkey are expected to apply for the list of approved ship recycling facilities which the European Commission will publish by mid-2016. The Platform discussed with the members of the Turkish ship recyclers association which challenges they have to face in order to become EU-listed, such as persisting gaps in occupational health and safety provisions. The objective of the Regulation is to reduce the negative impacts linked to the recycling of ...

  The NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a Brussels based coalition of environmental and human rights organisations, has published a list of ship owners and ships sold for dismantling in 2014. According to that list, compiled and based on research by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, several shipping companies were the beneficial owner or charterer of vessels that were beached for dismantling on the Indian subcontinent in 2014. Ship dismantling on the beaching yards of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan is associated with severe pollution and unsafe working conditions. Members of the Clean Shipping Network (CSN) strongly condemn and distance themselves from such ship breaking practices. By addressing this issue, Clean Shipping Network members aim to support progress to cleaner and safer ship recycling practices globally. Shipping companies, mentioned on the list from the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, are asked by CSN members to review their policies and practices regarding the selling and recycling of end-of-life vessels. Suppliers are also asked to answer the question on their ship recycling policy in the Clean Shipping Index questionnaire, a tool used by leading international cargo owners to evaluate the environmental performance of their providers of sea transports. For guidance on safe and environmentally sound ship recycling, the ...

In a position paper published, European shipowners call for a swift ratification of the 2009 IMO Hong Kong Convention (HKC), which is aimed at ensuring that ships, when being recycled after reaching the end of their operational lives, do not pose any unnecessary risk to human health and safety or to the environment. European shipowners also call for a smart application of the 2013 EU Ship Recycling Regulation (EU SRR) so that the latter act as a lever by incentivising ship recycling yards to upgrade towards compliance with the HKC requirements. Finally, EU shipowners also issue recommendations to the shipping industry to ensure the proper recycling of their ships, especially during the interim period preceding the entry into force of the HKC and full application of the EU SRR. The safe and environment-friendly recycling of end-of-life ships is a topic that has been picking up momentum in the last years and European shipowners are committed to contributing to the efforts to improve the international regulatory framework. “We need to ensure that the Hong Kong Convention is ratified as soon as possible” commented Patrick Verhoeven, ECSA Secretary-General. “It places clear obligations on all operators and on all IMO parties to make ...