Over the past few years, the awareness of how waste handling influences our lives, both directly and indirectly through environmental consequences, has been steadily increasing. This has been strengthened by the involvement of various NGOs such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and others, as well as by media attention.
One main consequence has been the introduction of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and their Disposal (the Basel Convention).
The Convention, organised under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), regulates the movement of hazardous waste and obliges participants to ensure that such waste is managed and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner. It covers toxic, poisonous, explosive, corrosive, flammable, ecotoxic and infectious wastes that are being moved from one country to another.
Governments are also expected to minimise the quantities that are transported, to treat and dispose of waste as closely as possible to its place of generation and to minimise the generation of hazardous waste at source.
Low wages, safety and environmental standards
Ships, unlike many other types of equipment, often have a significant value when being phased out at the end of their lives. The methods used for dismantling ships are very labour intensive. As a consequence, an industry has been established in countries like Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan and Turkey. This way the net value of the materials in the ship is positive even after the labour costs are included.
Around 90 per cent of the total worldwide shipbreaking capacity is to be found in the above countries. Over the years, it has been recognised that not only are these workers’ wages low, but safety and environmental standards are also poor compared to those of other industries in other parts of the world.
Described by the media
Towards the end of the 1990s, these conditions were described by the media, including in the work of reporters Gary Crohn and Will Englund, who received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles in the Baltimore Sun. As a result, the focus of the larger NGOs, the shipping community, the public at large and, not least, international organisations like the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has been set on this industry.
Legally binding instrument
The various organisations have been discussing the responsibility for and regulations applicable to these end-of-life ships. They argue that old ships contain such amounts of potentially hazardous waste that the Basel Convention applies, and in 2004 an agreement was even entered into stating that ships bound for demolition could be considered as waste.
The shipping industry and the IMO argue that ships fall under the responsibility of the IMO, and that this organisation should decide on any rules covering a ship’s last voyage. At a meeting of the Joint Working Group, composed of members of the IMO, the ILO and the Secretariat of the Basel Convention, in Geneva in December 2005, it was agreed to support the continued work of the IMO towards a new legally binding instrument to regulate ship recycling.
The Clemenceau case
The necessity of such international legally binding instrument can be seen from the ongoing discussions on the fate of the Clemenceau, a former French aircraft carrier. The Clemenceau is destined to be demolished, and has been sold to an Indian shipbreaker. In preparation for this, the French authorities have removed an amount of hazardous materials from the vessel. The results of this effort have been argued by Greenpeace, among others, to be insufficient, and as a consequence it has been claimed that the vessel still contains significant volumes of asbestos and other hazardous substances. As a result, discussions have been held between the French and Indian authorities, ship demolition and cleaning companies.
On 15 February, French president Jacques Chirac ordered the Clemenceau to return to French waters to wait for a ‘definitive solution’ to be found for its demolition. According to Lloyd’s List, he has also indicated that he wanted a new evaluation of the amount of asbestos and other hazardous substances still aboard the vessel to be carried out.
Ship recycling aspects
The situation illustrated by the fate of the Clemenceau is hardly acceptable to any of the parties. The new legally binding instrument to be developed by the IMO should therefore be welcomed by most parties. The instrument which will be developed from the present IMO Guidelines on Ship Recycling will contain provisions for most aspects of ship recycling such as:
- An inventory of potentially hazardous materials both in the ship’s structure and equipment, operationally generated waste and in the ship’s stores.
- A scheme stipulating that the ship-recycling facilities must meet a minimum standard with respect to human health, safety and the environment.
In addition to increasing the safety and environmental standards, this scheme will be a step towards more equal business standards. The consequence will be that shipowners or ship-recycling facilities which do not meet the minimum standards today will have to improve their standard sand performance with regard to health, safety and environmental issues.
As a consequence a level playing field with more equal opportunities will be created.
Date: 2006-03-13