European policies on ship recycling: A stakeholder survey

After almost a decade of intensive regulatory activities focused on ship-recycling around the world, special reference is made to combating the problems of ship dismantling practices on the shores of Southern Asian countries. “The Hong Kong International Convention” was adopted in 2009, to provide a uniform shipbreaking management approach. However, in globalised maritime transport, with the majority of shipowners using Open Registries, the European Union has prepared a common approach considering the implementation of a new legal framework. Regulation 1257/2013 implemented by the EU on ship-recycling should be more rigorous than those in the rest of the world. In this article, stakeholder perceptions of this Regulation are presented, based on an online survey. The results show significantly different perceptions in the ship-recycling industry regarding the developing ship-recycling measures within the EU.