Emission regulations to boost ship recycling

Tighter environmental regulations are expected to result in a more than 100% increase in vessels sent to the breakers over the next decade according to data from Bimco.

Using statistical demolition data from the past and newbuilding information Bimco has developed an algorithm that analyses the data, which suggests that more than 15,000 ships will be sent for recycling over the next ten years, said Gudrun Janssens, Bimco’s EU representative, at the Global Maritime Environment Congress (gmec) at SMM, in Hamburg last week.

The HK Convention all ships will be required to have an inventory of hazardous materials (IHM) from June next year, with the Basil Convention, which controls the movement of hazardous waste across borders, which has been enforced since 1992.

Through the adoption of a sustainable demolition system ship recycling will enter into the circular economy, the maritime industry can effectively contribute to a resource-efficient global economy.

“The shipping and recycling industry is looking mainly at the steel structure of a ship, but first they will need to make sure whether it makes sense to adjust the IHM to include steel and the different grades of steel so that these metals can be reused rather than down-cycled,” said Janssens.

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Henning Prinzen a trader of ships ready for demolition with Global Marketing Systems (GMS), said that at present some 80% of all vessels can be recycled, and breakers try to reuse all the equipment and furniture and other appliances on board, but “you have to accept that some parts cannot be reused or recycled and that there will always be some waste,” he said.

Bimco is now updating its recycling contract, known as Recyclecon, now that the HK Convention is coming in force, said Janssens, though she added that Bimco has heard from the recycling yards that few owners are selling ships with HK Convention compliance. “We need to do more work on this,” added Janssens.

“There will always be some dodgy guys trying to escape regulations,” claimed Prinzen.

However, Janssens pointed out that the EU had insisted on the ‘No More Favourable’ clause within the convention, and this means that even if your ship flies the flag of a non-signatory to the convention, all the major ship recycling yards are signed up to the convention, so all ships will be recycled under the convention, unless you can find the 1% of yards that are not signatories.

“This is a very strong measure to avoid leakage,” she added.

Yards are definitely going to be busier into the future with the newbuilding orders seeing fleets in every sector growing and the increasing average age of vessels there will be a marked growth in vessel demolition “eventually”, asserted Janssens.

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New capacity will be needed, but Janssens also pointed out that while the focus of the maritime sector was on retraining staff to handle new fuels and digitalisation, there is going to be a need for greater training for those working in breakers yards, “One of the most dangerous jobs in the world,” she said.

All costs that come from ship recycling, including labour and environmental and external costs should be included in the price the shipowner gets when he sells for recycling, “Then it’s a business case and it can be driven by the market,” explained Janssens.