The Regulatory Landscape Of Ship Recycling

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. In this authoritative book, Ioanna Hadjiyianni and Kleoniki Pouikli incisively map out the regulatory landscape of ship recycling, exploring the main international and European regulatory approaches that govern its environmental impacts. In light of the transnational demands of environmental justice, they critically assess the interaction between multiple regimes from the perspective of key environmental principles and the EU’s attempts to steer regulatory developments in this field.

This study provides an in-depth analysis of the Hong Kong Ship Recycling Convention as adopted in May 2009 and a thorough analysis of the overall status quo of ship recycling regulations. It investigates the lack of sufficient ratifications of the Convention from both a legal and an economic perspective. The first part of the study focuses on the history of the Convention’s entry-into-force provision and the rationale behind it. Due to the fact that this provision provides a considerable additional obstacle to the Convention’s becoming legally binding, in the second part the focus of the work shifts to unilateral action in this field. An overview of the legal environment of European ship recycling legislation is followed by an analysis and evaluation of a number of proposals by the European Commission attempting to tackle the problems of current ship recycling procedures. With a particular emphasis on (planned) European measures in this regard, the analysis’ overall message is one of cautious optimism.

Most of the world’s redundant ships are scrapped on the beaches of the Indian sub-continent, largely by hand. As well as cargo residues and wastes, ships contain high levels of hazardous materials that are released into the surrounding ecology when scrapped. The scrapping process is labour-intensive and largely manual; injuries and death are commonplace. Ship breaking was a relatively obscure industry until the late 1990s. In just 12 years, action by environmental NGOs has led to the ratification of an international treaty targeting the extensive harm to human and environmental health arising from this heavy, polluting industry; it has also produced important case law. Attempts to regulate the industry via the Basel Convention have resulted in a strong polarization of opinion as to its applicability and various international guidelines have also failed because of their voluntary nature. The adoption of the Hong Kong Convention in 2009 was a serious attempt to introduce international controls to this industry.

The increasing dominance of developing countries like India, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan in the global ship-breaking industry illustrates the paradoxical nature of economic globalization. While such operations provide access to employment and cheap material resources, they also pose serious long-term and irreversible harm to local environment and human health. In addition, the transnational character of the ship-breaking trade has militated against effective domestic oversight of its environmental hazards and has turned international regulation into an imperative. This article reviews the international attempts to mitigate the environmental concerns underlying ship-breaking. The Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes 1989 was one such attempt which however suffered from certain gaps in its implementation. These lacunae in the Basel regime have led to the adoption of the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships in May 2009. The paper compares the key features of this new Convention with the Basel regime and infers that while the former has made few significant breakthroughs in oversight of trade in end-of-life ships, not only does it ignore certain basic norms of international environmental law including the 'polluter pays principle' but it also contains the same gaping holes that were discovered during the application of Basel Convention to ship-breaking.

This book analyses the contribution of the IMO International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships to sustainable ship recycling against the backdrop of present practices and third world approaches to sustainable development.

This work deals with the international response to one of the serious environmental problems we face: transboundary traffic in hazardous wastes. The book analyses the key international treaties in this field, and proposes ways to build a comprehensive global waste management regime.

Old ships can have a useful and profitable new life as scrap metal. EU rules aim to change current ship recycling practices to make them greener and safer, protecting both the environment and people. The EU Ship Recycling Regulation is a European solution for responsible business, applying from January 2019. The Regulation implements the 2009 Hong Kong International Convention on ship recycling, which is not yet in force. Governments are still working on ratification. In the meantime, the EU is leading the way. The Regulation is a model for ship recycling around the world. The only instrument of its kind, it has prompted improvements for ships and yards well beyond the EU. Building on the achievements of this Regulation, the EU will continue to pursue an ambitious approach to ship recycling, at home and globally.

The Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of IMO, at its sixty-second session in July 2011, adopted the Revised MARPOL Annex V, concerning Regulations for the prevention of pollution by garbage from ships, which enters into force on 1 January 2013. The associated guidelines which assist States and industry in the implementation of MARPOL Annex V have been reviewed and updated and two Guidelines were adopted in March 2012 at MEPC's sixty-third session. The 2012 edition of this publication contains: the 2012 Guidelines for the implementation of MARPOL Annex V (resolution MEPC.219(63)); the 2012 Guidelines for the development of garbage management plans (resolution MEPC.220(63)); and the Revised MARPOL Annex V (resolution MEPC.201(62)).