Abstract
Ship recycling is gaining attention in Indonesia due to the increase in end-of-life ships and uneconomical nationally flagged ships, and is considered a prospective source of economic development and employment opportunity, and yet conceivably poses a threat to the health and safety of workers and the environment. There are international and national regulations that govern ship-recycling activities to ensure that the hazardous impacts of the industry are minimized. We investigated the disparity between current ship-breaking practices in Indonesia and the requirements of related international and national regulations, with the findings intended for use as a stepping stone to proposing a strategy to establish a green and sustainable ship-recycling industry. A benchmark study of the world’s leading ship-recycling countries was conducted, and a gap analysis was performed by comparing existing international and national regulations with current ship-breaking practices in Indonesia. We identified two types of ship-breaking practices in Indonesia: Conventional environmentally unfriendly ship-breaking method, conducted by most Indonesian ship-breaking yards, and a rather modern, more environmentally friendly method, conducted by ship-repair yards. However, neither of the practices met the requirements of the regulations, and improvements are therefore needed to make the ship-recycling industry more green and sustainable, and to gain international recognition.
Highlights
As the world’s largest archipelago with more than 17,500 islands [1,2], Indonesia very much depends on sea transportation
The European Union (EU) Ship-recycling Regulation is more focused on the recycling of ships flying an EU member state flag, and ships calling at EU ports or anchorages
A gap analysis was conducted by reviewing the development of the ship-recycling industry in five of the world’s leading ship-recycling countries, to establish a benchmark and compare the requirements of the international and national regulations with the existing ship-breaking practices in Indonesia
Summary
As the world’s largest archipelago with more than 17,500 islands [1,2], Indonesia very much depends on sea transportation. The number of ships in the national fleet increased significantly from around 6000 units in 2006 to more than 32,500 units in 2019, a growth of more than 540% over 13 years [4]. The market could be even greater if Indonesia could become an alternative to the world’s current ship-breaking centres in South Asia (India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan) [7]. This development could be supported by upcoming more stringent international regulations that are being introduced by developed ship-breaking countries such as the European Union’s Ship-Recycling Regulation [8]
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