Author: Jessica Fauvelle

Working ship breaking yards are located in the less developed areas of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. A google search and some research can lead you to some of the yards that are currently in use, I have created an interactive map to display these yards. It has grown in these specific countries because of cheap labour and increasing levels of environmental awareness in developed countries as well as more control over hazardous waste removal. It is more economically beneficial to send ships to Asia then to break them in North America or Europe. “Ship-owners sell their ships to the beaching yards for considerably greater profit than the price they could obtain by cooperating with modern ship recycling facilities” said Patrizia Heidegger, Executive Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.

“It is time for the global leaders in shipping to commit to clean and safe ship recycling,” says Patrizia Heidegger. “Every single ship owner can do something: instead of selling to intermediaries and losing leverage on the fate of their vessel, ship owners can talk to ship recycling experts and negotiate directly with modern ship recycling facilities. Teekay and Hapag-Lloyd’s decision last year to adopt responsible ship recycling policies shows that ship owners can make alternative choices”

These quotes come from a press release off the NGO Shipbreaking Platform. They accompany the photo above showing the top "dumpers" worldwide, these are companies that sell the ships to the yards. So the issue here is, these companies are aware of what they are selling and to whom, that is chemical ridden ships to shoddy yards with little regard for the environment or the safety of the people working there.