Ship Recycling

The Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (Hong Kong Convention) was adopted at a Diplomatic Conference held in Hong Kong, China, in May 2009 and will come into force from 26 June 2025.

The Hong Kong Convention is aimed at ensuring that ships, when being recycled after reaching the end of their operational lives, do not pose any unnecessary risk to human health and safety or to the environment.

Developed with inputs from IMO Member States and non-governmental organisations, and in co-operation with the International Labour Organization and the Parties to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (Basel Convention), the Hong Kong Convention intends to address all the issues around ship recycling, including the fact that ships sold for scrapping may contain environmentally hazardous substances such as asbestos, heavy metals, hydrocarbons, ozone depleting substances and others. It will address concerns about working and environmental conditions in many of the world's ship recycling facilities.

Ships to be sent for recycling will be required to carry an inventory of hazardous materials, which will be specific to each ship. An appendix to the Convention provides a list of hazardous materials, the installation or use of which is prohibited or restricted in shipyards, ship repair yards, and ships of Parties to the Convention. Ships will be required to have an initial survey to verify the inventory of hazardous materials, renewal surveys during the life of the ship, and a final survey prior to recycling.

Ship recycling yards will be required to provide a Ship Recycling Plan, to specify the manner in which each individual ship will be recycled, depending on its particulars and its inventory. Parties will be required to take effective measures to ensure that ship recycling facilities under their jurisdiction comply with the Convention.

INTERTANKO supports the Hong Kong Convention as it promotes a sustainable and transparent global ship recycling industry and therefore the introduction of international environmental and safety standards for ship recycling.

With the European Union implementing the EU Ship Recycling Regulation (EU SRR) in 2013, INTERTANKO will continue to provide feedback on implementing the requirements of the EU SRR and further analyse the disparities between the EU SRR and the Hong Kong Convention with a view of assessing the feasibility of incorporating the more stringent areas into the Hong Kong Convention. This could further strengthen the global ship recycling standards.

INTERTANKO will also continue to work with the IMO as discussions on potential legal issues that were identified concerning the interplay between the Hong Kong Convention and the Basel Conventions. It was noted that the IMO had initiated work on the development of the Hong Kong Convention due to the challenges of applying the Basel Convention to ships. Therefore, ships flying the flag of a State that is a party to the Hong Kong Convention should no longer fall under the provisions of the Basel Convention whilst on their way to their final recycling destination. A draft guidance on the interplay between the Hong Kong Convention and the Basel Convention in relation to ship recycling is expected to be developed in the near future.