Parties have recognised that ship recycling States and the facilities within their jurisdiction may require assistance in implementing the requirements of an international regime pertaining to ship recycling.
The Secretariat thus seeks to assist those Parties with ship recycling industries in applying these controls through technical capacity building activities. To this end, the Secretariat developed the Global Programme for Sustainable Ship Recycling in 2007 to encourage collaboration between organizations, in particular with IMO and ILO, in facilitating improvements in worker health and safety and environmental conditions in ship recycling countries.
The activities developed under the Global Programme are outlined below.
Global Programme activities
Ship Recycling Technology & Knowledge Transfer Workshop
In May 2009, the Secretariat of the Basel Convention received a request for technical capacity building assistance in relation to ship recycling from the Government of Pakistan. In response, the Secretariat developed a concept for a Ship Recycling Technology & Knowledge Transfer Workshop to strengthen the regulatory, institutional, procedural and infrastructural capacity of Pakistan’s Government and industry to fulfill the relevant aspects of the Basel Convention in relation to ship recycling, particularly those dealing with the downstream management of hazardous and other wastes, and the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, 2009. The Ministry of Environment & Forestry and the Undersecretariat for Maritime Affairs of the Government of Turkey and the Ship Recyclers’ Association of Turkey, kindly agreed to host the Workshop in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Basel Convention. The Workshop was made possible as a result of voluntary funding to the Secretariat of the Basel Convention from the Governments of Norway and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Workshop took place from 14 to 16 July 2010 in Izmir, Turkey. A delegation from Pakistan, comprised of representatives from both Government and industry, participated in the Workshop. In addition, representatives from the Secretariat of the Basel Convention, the International Maritime Organization, the Government of Turkey, the Ship Recyclers’ Association of Turkey and Germanischer Lloyd were present.
Please click the following links for the agenda, list of participants and report of the workshop.
Development of a case study elaborating models of compliant ship recycling facilities
A case study was developed through which: (i) models of compliant ship recycling facilities were elaborated in consideration of the requirements of the Basel Convention and the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships and their respective guidelines; and (ii) actions were identified to be undertaken in the short, medium and long term at ship recycling facilities employing the beaching method to facilitate compliance with the two conventions.
On the basis of the case study, two sets of supportive guidance and associated ‘train-the-trainer’ materials were developed as follows:
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for management and supervisors at ship recycling facilities: what constitutes ESM at the facility level, and what steps can be taken at ship recycling facilities to facilitate ESM operations downstream; what operational and procedural steps are required at the facility level to ensure compliance with the Basel and Hong Kong Conventions; what are the key roles and respective competencies of management and staff in meeting these obligations; and,
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for the competent authority(ies) assuming the responsibility for regulating the industry: what constitutes ESM at the facility level; what processes must be employed to ensure effective monitoring and compliance with respect to the requirements of the two conventions at the ship recycling facility level; what processes must be employed to ensure effective monitoring and compliance with respect to waste management facilities downstream from the ship recycling facilities; what are the key roles and respective competencies of management and staff in meeting these obligations.
This project was completed in July 2012 and was funded through a grant received from the European Commission and funding from the Government of Norway.
Feasibility study to identify environmentally sound, cost effective alternatives to beaching
A feasibility study was finalized in April 2013 to identify cost-effective, environmentally sound alternatives to the traditional beaching method of ship recycling.
The following activities will form part of the study:
- a review of current ship recycling methods and identification of cost effective, environmentally sound alternatives to beaching. This work included consultations with those ship recycling facilities employing environmentally sound alternatives and with shipowners who utilise such facilities;
- a field mission to facilities employing alternative methods of ship recycling to establish the parameters (operational, infrastructural) of such methods; and
- development of a feasibility report providing: models of alternative environmentally sound ship recycling operations; identification of potential parties/industry partners and sites for the establishment of such facilities; and a costing estimate for the establishment and operation of such facilities.
This project was funded through a grant received from the European Commission.
Developing downstream hazardous waste management capacity in ship recycling countries
This capacity building activity will focus on the development of downstream hazardous waste management capacity in ship recycling countries. While incremental steps are being taken to improve environmental and worker health and safety standards in the industry, particularly at the recycling facilities themselves, the ship recycling process cannot be environmentally sound unless suitable downstream infrastructure for the hazardous and other waste arising from ship recycling is established. For this reason, this activity shall focus on the development of inventories of hazardous waste in two pilot countries (Bangladesh and Pakistan) in the regions where ship recycling takes place. Following the development of the inventories, business cases will be developed to assist government and industry to establish the requisite infrastructure. These will be replicable in other regions/countries.
This project, which is designed to complement capacity building activities to be undertaken by both IMO and UNIDO in South Asia, will be completed by the end of 2013. The European Commission has provided the funding for this project.