Last year alone ship recyclers on South Asian beaches caused the deaths of 52 workers and countless more injuries. NGO Shipbreaking Platform is trying to find ways to stop it.
In it’s annual report published 16 May, Shipbreaking Platform reports that last year was one of the worst on record for injuries and fatalities to workers dismantling often contaminated vessels on the tidal beaches of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The worst explosion in the history of shipbreaking struck an oil tanker beached in Gadani, Pakistan. It left 28 workers dead and injured a further 60.
Speaking at an event held at the offices of law firm Leigh Day the day before the report was published, Ingvild Jenssen, founder and director of NGO Shipbreaking Platform said: “At least 300 workers have died in the ship breaking industry since the adoption of the new Hong Kong Convention. This is just due to accidents on the yards. Many more workers get sick after having inhaled toxic fumes and having been exposed to asbestos without protective equipment. This is an industry with a human cost to it.”
“The challenges of this industry are not only the human costs, but also that it pollutes a lot,” she continues. “Ships are rammed up tidal beaches with a tidal range of 10 to 13 metres. There is no containment of pollutants such as paint chips which contain heavy metals. They fall into the tidal zone and are washed out by the tide. There’s also no proper down steam waste treatment in these countries. For example they sell the asbestos in India.”
“This is an industry which often likes to boast about being extremely green because they recycling 95% of the ship, but they also recycle the aesbestos. While ship recycling is something we should continue with, there’s no reason why this shoudn’t be done in a proper way,” adds Jenssen.
International Regulations
In 1999, the UNEP Basal Convention came in to protect developing countries from the dumping of toxic waste. It is supposed to prevent the export of hazardous materials from OECD countries to non-OCED countries. However, the ownership structures of the shipping industry have allowed it to easily circumnavigate this regulation.
Vessel themselves are owned by the Beneficial Owner, a shipping company which takes the business decisions, costs and profits from the vessel. Then there is a Commercial Operator, in many cases the same company as the Beneficial Owner but not in all cases. Next there is the Registered. This is the company to whom the ship's legal title of ownership has been registered and under whose flag the vessel sails. These are often registered in a country whose tax on the profits of trading ships is low/absent or whose requirements concerning manning or maintenance might be more relaxed.
In 2009 the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships was adopted. It is an initiative of the International Maritime Organization, which was not happy about the prospect of ship owners being obliged to meet the regulations of their own country, rather the country of the flag under which it flies.
It will not come into force until 24 months after ratification by 15 States, representing 40% of world merchant shipping by gross tonnage. As yet is has only been ratified by three countries. Even if it does ever come into force, it has been heavily criticised for permitting the beaching of end-of-life vessels.
Too Many Loopholes
According to Jenssen in many cases the Registered Owner will be a post box company established only to deal with that ship. The maritime law applicable in the country flag state will be that under which the vessel is obligated. This provides the loophole through which huge cargo vessels can slip, allowing owners to reflag ships at short notice and bypass the obligations their own environmental and maritime laws may hold them to.
“The absurd situation is that if the vessel is in international waters when the intent to discard is disclosed, there is no exporting state. What happens in most cases is that a vessel sails on an 'operational voyage' all the way to Bangladesh, and the intent to disclose is only revealed once it is actually in Bangladesh. Technically there has been no transboundary movement of the vessel as a waste,” she says.
In her presentation Francesca Carlsson, corporate liaison and policy officer at Shipbreaking Platform explained that cash buyers are used as intermediaries for end-of-life sales to the beaching yards. These companies become the new owners of the ship for a couple of weeks before selling it for the highest scrap price. The cash buyers usually re-flag and rename the ship.
Typically these buyers use flags known for their poor implementation of international maritime law. Small island tax havens offer their flag for a cheap ‘last voyage’ registration fee, often not even with a requirement to incorporate with a post box company.
“Many of these flags provide a discount for registering ships at the end-of-life. They have very low standards for environmental protection and crewing,” Carlsson tells delegates. “It’s extremely cheap and it can take a maximum of 24 hours.”
The EU Ship Recycling Regulation
It’s not only the Basel Convention being given the slip. The EU Ship Recycling Regulation requires vessels sailing under a Member State’s flag must send vessels for recycling to an EU approved facility.
Speaking with WMW Jenssen explains: “If you compare the Hong Kong Convention to the EU Ship Recycling Regulation you can understand why we’re much more in favour of the EU regulations. They are higher, they include downstream waste management requirements, labour rights etc. The Commission will be considering a number of applications from around the world including China, Turkey, India and the US. We believe that the regulation will have a global impact.”
Currently, all 18 of the approved facilities, with a total capacity of 1.1 million Light Displacement Tonnage (LDT) are located within the EU, but the Commission is currently revising 18 additional applications from facilities located outside the EU. However, even those yards approved are currently running under capacity as owners continue to send ships, often via some murky dealings with cash buyers, to be beached.
In a bid to address that situation a group of five approved recycling yards recently signed an agreement to establish the European Ship Recyclers Group (ESR).
“Our first target is to create awareness of the recycling capacity in Europe which today is over 1 million tonnes,“ explains newly elected ESR chairman, Peter Wyntin. "We have to ensure that our member yards are on the top of the ship-owners’ list for dismantling their ships. Our message is a clear one. If we can handle them let’s keep the EU flagged ships in Europe.’’
According to Jenssen one of the problems the European yards have is size, with most of them unable to handle the largest vessels. Investment in the infrastructure upgrades to allow these ships to be recycled has not been forthcoming simply because they would not be able to compete with the prices offered to ship owners by the Asian yards operating on tidal beaches. However, she also notes that disused ship building capacity in Europe could provide a ready-made solution.
Conclusion
Shipbreaking Platform argues that the crisis cannot be effectively regulated by flag state jurisdiction, as the cash buyers, or the ship owners themselves, will always be able to find flag states that are known for not ratifying or properly implementing international conventions and laws, including those regulating ship recycling.
However, the organisation does propose a financial incentive be introduced in Europe which would encourage ship owners to recycle responsibly. One possible way of implementing this would be to make ship owners pay a fee each time they use a port in the EU. At the end of the ship’s life this could be returned if the vessel is dismantled in an approved yard.
With the tidal yards of South Asia looking to expand, let's just hope that at least some progress can be made to stop vessels containing large quantities of hazardous materials simply shipping out at end-of-life.
