A new recycling law in Bangladesh has set a five-year target for the country’s shipbreakers to improve the management and regulation of the industry to the highest international standards.
The Bangladeshi Ship Recycling Act 2018 was passed last month to bring the domestic demolition industry up to the standards of the Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships.
Yasmin Sultana, joint secretary for the ministry of industries in Bangladesh, told the TradeWinds Ship Recycling forum in Hamburg this week: “We have taken steps to meet the provisions of the Hong Kong Convention.”
The first step will be the establishment of a ship recycling board to oversee the improvements. The law wants to see a shared hazardous waste treatment storage and disposal facility developed for Chittagong breakers.
Approved yards only
Only yards approved by the board will be able to carry out recycling work.
A training scheme for yard workers is also being developed and a database of trained workers will be created to ensure only qualified workers are employed in the shipbreaking industry.
An inter-ministerial one-stop-service is also being created at government level to facilitate the moves.
A five-year target has been set under the law for Bangladesh to accede to the Hong Kong Convention.
Bangladesh is also pushing on with phase two of the Safe and Environmentally Sound Ship Recycling in Bangladesh (SENSREC) project which is backed by Norwegian foreign aid and the IMO to enhance the country’s shipbreaking capacity.
The new law could help Bangladesh catch up with similar improvements being made in India where more than 60 yards have been awarded statement of compliance certification with the Hong Kong Convention from classification societies.
PHP Family is the only Bangladesh yard to have achieved the certification.
Ministry of industries deputy secretary Mizanur Rahman told the TradeWinds forum: “Bangladesh can become a clean ship recycling country.”
