Ship Decommissioning and Ship-Breaking

There are a huge numbers of ocean-going vessels out there, ranging in size from pleasure boats to aircraft carriers. The Lloyds registry alone has 200,000 entries for merchant ships larger than 100 gross tons, and this number is dwarfed if one adds military and private vessels to the mix. These ships do not last forever, of course, and when they are no longer useful, their disposal creates a major challenge. This challenge has clearly grown since the days of the Phoenicians and Greeks, when vessels were constructed of natural compounds. Today, ships are floating hazardous waste sites, containing heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, non-biodegradable plastics, hydrocarbons, and even nuclear materials, and although the London Dumping Convention stipulates that vessel disposal on the high seas is against the law, countries continually dispose of ships at sea within their waters, or export their hazardous decommissioned ships to developing countries, which are eager to get paid fees and largely ignorant of the consequences.