Ship recycling and marine poluttion

Marine Pollution Bulletin 60 (2010) 1390–1396

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Marine Pollution Bulletin
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Ship recycling and marine pollution
Yen-Chiang Chang a,*,1, Nannan Wang b, Onur Sabri Durak c
a

School of Law, Shandong University, Shandong 250100, China School of Management, Shandong University,Shandong 250100, China c Maritime Faculty, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul 34940, Turkey
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
This paper discusses the historical background, structure and enforcement of the ‘2009 Hong Kong International Convention on the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships.’ the 2009 Hong Kong Convention establishes control and enforcement instrumentsrelated to ship recycling, determining the control rights of Port States and the obligations of Flag States, Parties and recycling facilities under its jurisdiction. The Convention also controls the communication and exchange of information procedures, establishes a reporting system to be used upon the completion of recycling, and outlines an auditing system for detecting violations. TheConvention, however, also contains some deficiencies. This paper concludes these deficiencies will eventually influence the final acceptance of this Convention by the international community. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Ship recycling Marine environmental protection International Maritime Organization

1. Introduction The disposal of ships at end of their economic life has greatsignificance for the continual renewal of the merchant marine fleet (White and Molloy, 2001) and for sustainable development (Sundelin, 2008). Ship-recycling facilities, however, also have negative effects in terms of the environment and occupational health and safety. Approximately 90–95% of international commercial goods are transported by sea because of cost efficiency. Shipping is an internationalactivity because ships sail throughout the world, and it is the most important link in the world manufacturers’ global logistical chain. Thus, the shipping industry represents the smallest part of a product’s cost, making the trade viable. Nonetheless, the shipping industry has a potentially negative impact on the marine environment and some economic disadvantages. In addition, if there is noappropriate integrated system for the recycling or reusing of ship-related steel, machines, auxiliaries and even furnishings, such materials will remain unused and useless to the economy at the end of a ship’s life cycle. In this respect, ship-recycling facilities contribute to sustainable development and represent an environmentally friendly way to dispose of ships (Mikelis, 2006) and to economicallyintegrate their life chains. Ship recycling costs are comparatively higher in the European

* Corresponding author. Address: No. 5 Hongjialou, School of Law, Shandong University, City of Jinan 250100, China. Tel.: +86 15275197632. E-mail addresses: coastal.tw@yahoo.com.tw, rudieger@hotmail.com (Y.-C. Chang), southsouth@hotmail.co.uk (N. Wang). 1 Institute of the Law of the Sea, Taiwan OceanUniversity, Taiwan (LL.M); School of Law, University of Dundee, UK (Ph.D.). 0025-326X/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2010.05.021

Union (EU) and the United States of America (USA) than in Asia because of the strict regulations relating to environmental issues and occupational safety and health issues. Thus, ship-recycling facilities in the EUand the USA are not economically viable. At the end of a ship’s life cycle, the ship contains not only various recyclable materials but also a range of hazardous and toxic substances (Krause, 2005). In Europe and in Member States of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), materials that contain hazardous and toxic substances are subject to monitoring, and their...