Shipbreakers under scrutiny

At Alang, 35,000 people dismantle 200 ships along a 10km beach and the report highlights predictions of increased scrapping of 25 year-old tankers. The class society says waste with no commercial value is burnt on the site or dumped (asbestos into the sea and oil deposits on the beach).

A typical large tanker may contain to 8t of asbestos, 1,800m3 of oil deposits, 50,000m of copper cable, heavy metals, lead and PCBs, says the study. It recommends international regulations for ship scrapping be consideration and an environmental analysis of a beach to chart pollution.

Also recommended is charting the global decommissioning capacity and the effects of moving scrapping to OECD countries.