Ship breaking or scuttling? A review of environmental, economic and forensic issues for decision support

Damien Devault (ddevault@martinique.univ-ag.fr), Briac Beilvert and Peter Winterton
Additional contact information
Damien Devault: ESE - Ecologie Systématique et Evolution - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Briac Beilvert: CDMO - Centre de droit maritime et océanique - UFR DSP - Université de Nantes - UFR Droit et Sciences Politiques - UN - Université de Nantes
Peter Winterton: UT3 - Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier - UT - Université de Toulouse

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: In a globalized world, the world trade fleet plays a pivotal role in limiting transport costs. But, the management of obsolete ships is an acute problem, with most Ship Recycling Facilities (SRF) situated in developing countries. They are renowned for their controversial work and safety conditions and their environmental impact. Paradoxically, dismantlement is paid for by the shipowners in accordance with international conventions therefore it is more profitable for them to sell off ships destined for scrapping. Scuttling, the alternative to scrapping, is assessed in the present review to compare the cost/benefit ratios of the two approaches. Although scrapping provides employment and raw materials – but with environmental, health and safety costs – scuttling provides fisheries and diving tourism opportunities but needs appropriate management to avoid organic and metal pollution, introduction of invasive species and exacerbation of coastal erosion. It is also limited by appropriate bottom depth, ship type and number. The present review inventories the environmental, health, safety, economic, and forensic aspects of each alternative.

Keywords: Ship Recycling Facilities; Wrecks; Artificial reef; Ship recycling; Shipbreaking; Tourism; Diving; Working conditions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-07-16
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2016, 24 (33), pp.25741-25774. ⟨10.1007/s11356-016-6925-5⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04499756

DOI: 10.1007/s11356-016-6925-5

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD (hal@ccsd.cnrs.fr).