
Marco Polo on the beach at Alang
Every year, on average, close to 1,000 ships are sold for scrap, or in more current language, to be recycled. Over the past year during the pandemic, there has been a particular surge in the number of older cruise being sent to shipbreaking yards. Many of these cruise ships have been sent to Turkish shipbreakers.
The BBC reported recently of two UK cruise ships sent instead to Alang, India for scrapping. The problem is that ships sent to scrap yards are considered to be hazardous waste and it is illegal to send them to developing countries from the UK. UK and EU regulations require that ships being recycled be sent to approved shipbreaking facilities that meet environmental and worker safety rules. As of this November, the approved list contains 43 yards, including 34 yards in Europe, 8 yards in Turkey, and 1 yard in the USA.
There are currently no approved ship recycling yards on the EU list in Asia, where over 90% of the world’s ships are scrapped. Continue reading