All about Valuable Materials & Hazardous / Toxic Components - The Ship Recycling Process
Shipping is the main mode of transport for traded goods and about 90% of the traded goods are transported by sea. Although transfer and transport of goods and services are never ending, individual ships last for few decades only. When a ship becomes too expensive and difficult for the owner to repair after about 27 to 30 years of service (depending on the type of ship and its freight market conditions), the shipping companies send the Ship for recycling where all the valuable metals and materials are scrapped out and the toxic ones are disposed off in the safe and environment friendly method. Almost all the ships, including Cruise ships and tankers go for recycling after they reach their end of life.
Valuable Components: During the ship recycling process, the valuable materials such as Steel, aluminum, brass and more materials are brought out from the ship which are then sold in the market for reuse. For the steel mills that supply materials to construction industries, old ships are considered as a valuable source of Steel – plates and scrap, where they further use the steel for manufacturing of useful products such as Ingots, Billets, Angles, Channels, TMT etc. Recycling the ships helps to re-circulate these materials into the economy for the reuse.
Hazardous Materials: Along with the valuable materials brought out of the ships, there are hazardous materials such as lead, Mercury, oil sludge, asbestos, bilge water (which contains oil, urine, detergents and solvents) ballast water (which contains plants, viruses and bacteria that are picked up along the journey), TBT (antifouling Paints which contains biocides), PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls) and more. These hazardous materials are carefully identified, packed, stored and disposed to authorized agencies. It is very important to handle these hazardous materials systematically and carefully to avoid negative impact on environment and ensuring safety of workers.
During the past 6-7 years rapid strides have been made in development of safe and environmentally friendly processes of ship recycling by various ship recycling facilities around the world. Such processes are mainly based on ship recycling practices as per Hong Kong Convention for Safe and Environmentally Friendly Recycling of Ships, 2009 as well as European Union Ship Recycling Regulation. These are welcome developments.
