IMO to adopt climate-friendly rules for ship recyclers

The IMO has bowed to pressure to adopt climate-friendly ways in its recycling sub-sector. From next month, it is set to come up with new regulations for ship recyclers. Activists have piled pressure on the shipping industry to seek safer recycling methods that will reduce degradation of the environment. Ship recycling contributes to the global conservation of energy and resources, but the presence of asbestos, hydrocarbons and other environmentally hazardous substances in ships can, if the scrapping process is not carefully controlled, have negative effects on the environment and human health.

Older vessels contain large amounts of hazardous materials, such as asbestos, oils and oil sludge, PCBs and heavy metals. Environmental experts say in the coming 10 years, an estimated 5.5 million tonnes of hazardous materials will end up in such dismantling yards. It is estimated that thousands workers contract diseases from handling and inhaling toxic substances and the fatal accident rate is high.

Statistics indicate that by the end of the decade 4,000 ships with a gross tonnage of 24 million would be recycled every year. This means with no mechanisms put in place, the shipping industry would contribute immensely to global warming.