Author: Nicola Mulinaris

Press Release – European Commission Must Not Approve Beaching Yards on the Updated EU List

Posted on by Nicola Mulinaris

NGO Shipbreaking Platform urges the European Commission to reverse its shocking proposal to include two beaching facilities in the 16th update of the EU List of ship recycling facilities. 

 

Beaching yards in Alang-Sosiya, Gujarat, India, including Shree Ram and YSI Recyclers (2025)

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on its proposed 16th update of the EU List of ship recycling facilities. While the proposal includes the removal of yet another Turkish shipbreaking yard due to recurring deficiencies, two beaching yards: Shree Ram and YSI Recyclers, located in Alang-Sosiya, India, are proposed to be included. This represents a significant shift from previous editions of the List and raises serious concerns on the future direction of the EU Ship Recycling Regulation (EU SRR).

 

The objective of the EU SRR is to ensure safe and environmentally sound ship recycling. If the Commission's assessment methodology allows the approval of facilities that pose serious risk to coastal ecosystems, workers and surrounding communities, the Regulation's objectives are clearly not met. Beaching, the dominant shipbreaking method in South Asia, is not allowed in the EU [1]. This method involves dismantling vessels directly on tidal mudflats without any infrastructure to contain pollutants. Debris and toxic contaminants, such as oil, fuel, and liquid chemical residues, land directly in the seawater, largely contributing to the degradation of ecosystems [2]. 

"None of the beaching yards would be allowed to clone their operations on a tidal mudflat in the EU. Their inclusion on the EU List will set a chilling double standard and seriously undermine the EU's own ship recycling sector."
Ingvild Jenssen - Executive Director and Founder - NGO Shipbreaking Platform

Recent incidents reinforce these concerns. In June 2026, a heavy fuel spill occurred at the Priya Blue shipbreaking yard, contaminating vast parts of the Gujarati coast. The spill was visible 10 kilometres from the yard. Despite claims of immediate response, the incident demonstrates fundamental inability to contain pollutants when dismantling occurs on tidal mudflats. 

 

These operations violate coastal regulation zone boundaries, and while Indian courts have generally pursued regulation over prohibition, environmental groups argue this framework remains insufficient to ensure safe and environmentally sound practices given the inherent ecological and health risks linked to beaching [3]. 

 

The EU and its Member States are furthermore signatories to the Basel Convention on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous waste, a category that includes end-of-life ships. The Convention's goal is to prevent the dumping of hazardous waste in countries that lack adequate capacity to manage it safely. The Basel Ban Amendment specifically prohibits hazardous waste trade from OECD to non-OECD countries.

"While the EU has a responsibility to ensure that it does not export harm to third countries, the standards of the EU SRR cannot change based on the location. Every yard on the EU List should be subject to the same rules and procedures. If not, compliant yards in the EU will continue to face unfair competition. We urge the EU to close the door on harmful practices that would never be allowed in the European Union’s territory and put a stop to the shipping industry’s exploitation of weaker environmental and OHS standards."
Ingvild Jenssen - Executive Director and Founder - NGO Shipbreaking Platform

Join us and call on the European Commission to: 

 

- Remove the Indian beaching facilities from the proposed list as they do not ensure safe and environmentally sound recycling of vessels; 

- Ensure consistency with the Basel Convention's obligations on hazardous waste trade; 

- Apply uniform standards across all listed facilities regardless of geographic location – the standards cannot change based on the location; 

- Prioritise the EU SRR's core objectives of environmental protection, worker safety. 

 

The consultation on the EU List is open until 30 August. NGO Shipbreaking Platform is currently thoroughly reviewing the inspection reports from the beaching yards. We urge all stakeholders that share our commitment to environmental justice to contribute to the consultation.

 

The EU List should serve as a benchmark for best practices, not as a tool that legitimises greenwashing. Beaches and tidal mudflats, regardless of location, are not acceptable areas to recycle ships. 

 

NOTES

 

[1] Beaching per se is not explicitly prohibited in the EU Ship Recycling Regulation. However, Article 13(1) of the Regulation states that safe and environmentally sound management of ship recycling includes handling of hazardous materials, and of waste generated during the ship recycling process, only on impermeable floors with effective drainage systems. Beaching a vessel on an intertidal mudflat, where pollution incidents such as an oil spill cannot be effectively contained, is therefore incompatible with this requirement. 

 

[2] The EU site inspection reports from Alang-Sosiya record pollution and debris in the yards and their surrounding area. Similarly, inspections in Aliağa, Turkey, found debris left in the foreshore and water. Recent studies confirm persistent contamination of Alang's seawater and sediments with heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons, PAHs, and other contaminants from fuel leakage, cutting, welding, and paints. Alang-Sosiya sits in the Gulf of Khambhat, a coastal system already characterised by high tides, strong currents, cyclones and river discharge. Mitigation measures, such as concrete floors and drainage channels in the secondary cutting zones, and embankments only partially offset pollution pathways that are inherent to beaching, and since yards share a single tidal cluster, no plot's performance can be assessed in complete isolation. 

 

[3] Indian shipbreaking yards operate under a built-in regulatory exemption. Although the sector legally requires EIA and Coastal Regulation Zone clearance, it's been exempted from both since operations predate those regulations. Oversight is weak by the regulator's own admission, the Gujarat Pollution Control Board's 2022 audit by India's Comptroller and Auditor General found chronic understaffing, weak technical capacity, and poor transparency undermining its function. In 2025 the GPCB furthermore downgraded shipbreaking's pollution classification from Red to Orange despite acknowledging the sector releases hazardous materials, stretching permits from 5 to 10 years and halving inspections. Yards also remain legally entitled to resell recovered asbestos, while downstream treatment capacity is already exhausted, with no wastewater management capacity and standard for the sector.

Press Release – Turkish Civil Society Organisations Respond to New ‘Sham’ EIA Process and the Ship Recycling Regulation

Posted on by Nicola Mulinaris

A coalition of Turkish civil society organisations and professional chambers criticised the revised Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) application for ship recycling facilities in Aliağa, calling it inadequate and not reflecting the reality on the ground, and urged authorities to reject the current process until a real evaluation for the region and a proper facility-by-facility assessments are conducted.

The public consultation of the EIA procedure was held on 23 June. The Turkey Ship Recycling Monitoring Coordination stated that the revised EIA fails to provide a real environmental assessment of ship recycling activities in Aliağa, and cannot be accepted as such. The Coordination condemned the new EIA document, calling it a legal cover for existing unlawful practices and past environmental harm in Aliağa caused by the shipbreaking industry. 

 

What are the problems with the new EIA that the civil society groups highlight? 

 

- The EIA application features an “increase in the operational area,” although the referred additional coastal land created by “sediment accumulation” is already being used to store metal waste, ropes, equipment and vehicles, as shared. 

- The application therefore appears to seek approval for an existing situation. Nevertheless, it provides no maps, boundaries, measurements or clear explanation of how the areas were formed and are currently used. 

- It contains no field studies, facility-level assessments or current pollution measurements. Risks related to land formation, geology, earthquakes, biodiversity, agriculture and the marine environment are not assessed. 

- Hazardous waste, wastewater and drainage systems are not meaningfully addressed. No facility-level data is provided on the types and quantities of waste generated, stored, transferred or disposed of. 

- Finally, the application was submitted by the Ship Recyclers’ Association, which does not itself operate the facilities. This appears contrary to Turkey’s EIA Regulation, which requires the application to be made by the project owner. 

"This EIA application fails to assess the key environmental, technical and occupational risks of ship recycling in Aliağa, despite previous studies identifying ship recycling as a serious source of pollution in the region. In light of four worker deaths in the last eight months and the lack of transparent data on injuries, occupational health and safety risks also require a holistic assessment, together with environmental aspects. Yet the data shared during the meeting remain incomplete, misleading and far from reflecting the reality on the ground."
Selma Akdoğan - Chamber of Environmental Engineers, İzmir Branch

The critique comes amid serious concerns over occupational safety. Since October 2025, four workers have lost their lives in fatal incidents in Aliağa ship recycling facilities, two of which occurred in EU-listed yards. Most recently, on April 25 2026, 65-year-old Galip Avcı lost his life at the EU-listed Sök Denizcilik yard after being crushed by a heavy metal part during cutting operations. Further concerns regarding oversight at the same yard arose on 26 June, when customs authorities reportedly discovered a large quantity of illegal fuel on board a vessel that had arrived for dismantling. 

Unclear standards of Turkey’s new Regulation on the Authorization of Ship Recycling Facilities  

 

Apart from the EIA procedure, a new Regulation was published on 22 June 2026, that introduced a new authorisation system in line with the Hong Kong Convention. It requires facility-level and ship-specific recycling plans, and establishes approvals and sanctions in line with guidelines. The Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change must also adopt a separate regulation within one year setting out environmental requirements for ship recycling.

 

However, key requirements remain unclear, as the Regulation relies on unspecified national and international guidelines without clearly defining them, whether they are binding, or where they can be accessed. The Regulation also lacks concrete environmental requirements for permitting, pollution control, monitoring and transparency.  Its effectiveness will depend on binding environmental rules and a broader assessment of the risks of landing-based ship recycling. 

Concerns Highlighted in the Site Inspection Reports on Leyal and Avşar

 

Following serious incidents that occurred in January and February, the European Commission carried out unannounced inspections at the EU-listed Leyal and Avşar yards in March 2026. The inspection reports, published last month, raise significant concerns about pollution containment, as well as incident documentation and reporting. 

 

In January, GNV Antares (IMO 8503797), being dismantled in Leyal yard, collided with a platform located in the neighbouring Metaş shipbreaking yard. Another incident was reported in February, when unidentified liquid substance was discharged into the sea during the dismantling of the Lily Ha (IMO 8116972) vessel in Avşar. 

 

According to the EU Inspection Report of Leyal, the GNV Antares suffered a hull rupture and uncontrolled flooding on 8 January 2026. Inspectors later observed extensive water and oily residues inside the vessel, but the facility provided no incident report, management records, water samples or sufficient documentation. The extent of any environmental pollution could therefore not be verified or quantified. The findings were categorized as a deficiency. 

 

Concerning Avşar, satellite imagery confirmed that Lily Ha collided with a platform at the neighbouring Metaş yard on 19 February 2026 as well. However, the source of the subsequent marine pollution could not be conclusively attributed to either facility or to the collision. Inspectors found no incident report, root-cause analysis or supporting documentation, and considered the yard’s spill-response method uncertain and potentially impractical. The incident’s cause was concluded as “inconclusive”. The report also identified three inconclusive items, nine deficiencies and five areas for improvement, including repeated worker-safety concerns. 

 

To the best of our knowledge, no public information has been made available on the condition of the platform in Metaş following the collisions or on any damage it may have sustained. 

 

EU-listed yards must be able to identify pollution sources and demonstrate how pollution was prevented, contained, collected and safely disposed of. These findings reinforce the need for fully contained recycling of ships, thorough environmental impact assessments, and strict legal enforcement.

NOTES

 

[1] Landing is a shipbreaking method practiced in Aliağa. It consists of a ship being dismantled on the shore, while the back of it remains in water. A ship is then pulled to the shore by cranes and dismantled gradually. This method does not ensure full containment of hazardous waste and spills. 

 

Press Release – Massive Oil Spill at India’s “Best Shipbreaking Yard” Raises Serious Concerns Over Hong Kong Convention Certification. NGOs call for a global ban on beaching

Posted on by Nicola Mulinaris

A massive oil spill at Priya Blue’s shipbreaking yard plot V1/V2 in Alang-Sosiya, Gujarat, India, raises serious concerns over safety and environmental standards at one of the country’s most heavily promoted shipbreaking facilities, and is a stark reminder of the inherent flaws of the beaching method [1]. Environmental and human rights organisations have for years urged global policy makers and industry stakeholders to phase out this dangerous and polluting method of scrapping ships and now call on urgent action to ban beaching.

 

The spill occurred on the afternoon of 13 June. According to Priya Blue, an “extremely high tide wave” destabilised the LNG vessel SOHAR (IMO 9210816) which had been beached at their plot only a few days earlier. The vessel then supposedly crashed into the floating crane barge stationed at the yard, reportedly causing severe damage to the SOHAR’s forward fuel tank and releasing large amounts of heavy fuel oil into the sea.

 

While Priya Blue published an Incident Investigation and Environmental Response Report on 26 June claiming that remediation began immediately, workers in full PPE were mobilised, and containment measures were deployed close to the source of pollution, available evidence tells a very different story.

Oil spill at Priya Blue shipbreaking yard. Alang, Gujarat, India.

Footage obtained by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform shows workers sent to clean up the oil spill without protective clothing, equipment, and standing barefoot in oil. Satellite imagery from 14 June shows the oil having spread far beyond Priya Blue’s plot, clearly indicating that it was impossible to contain the spill within the yard area due to the tidal flows that characterize the beaching method.

Locations of the oil spill sightings. Gujarat, India.

Local media reports on the environmental disaster and testimonies from affected communities also point to major discrepancies in Priya Blue’s account. The company’s report – which only includes pictures from several days after the incident and no pictures of the impact on the SOHAR – appears to downplay the scale and spread of pollution, while independent documentation shows contamination far beyond the immediate area of the yard. Oil was reported washing ashore along a large stretch of the coastline, including fishing village Mithi Virdi, around 10 kilometres from Priya Blue, directly contradicting any suggestion that the spill remained contained close to the facility.  

Heavy oil washing ashore. Mithi Virdi, Gujarat, India.

"Priya Blue did not disclose the full picture in its own report – they omitted reporting on grave occupational and safety breaches and instead claimed that trained personnel wearing full PPE had been mobilised. This raises serious questions about not only the accuracy and transparency of the company’s account of the incident, but also its HSE credentials."
Ingvild Jenssen - Executive Director and Founder - NGO Shipbreaking Platform

Two days after the incident, Gujarati TV channel TV9 reported from the site, and according to their sources, more than 30 hours after the massive oil spill, responsible authorities, including the Gujarat Maritime Board and Gujarat Pollution Control Board, appeared not to have taken any action. While public outrage grew after videos of heavy fuel oil washing ashore began circulating on social media, little information about the origins of the spill was available, showcasing a serious lack of transparency, enforcement, and accountability in the Alang-Sosiya shipbreaking region. According to a Gujarati-language newspaper, Gujarat Samachar, the Gujarat Pollution Control Board collected liquid and sediment samples along a 200–300 meter stretch of coastline only three days after the spill. 

"Witnesses we managed to get hold on were clearly afraid to speak publicly about the spill and shared frustration over repeated failures to prevent pollution events and accidents occurring at other yards in Alang-Sosiya as well."
Ingvild Jenssen - Executive Director and Founder - NGO Shipbreaking Platform

Priya Blue is not a marginal operator in Alang-Sosiya, and is linked to cash buyer Best Oasis. Widely promoted as one of India’s most advanced shipbreaking yards, Priya Blue has operated for 40 years and its yard at plot V1/V2 is one of the first to have obtained a certificate from Indian authorities as being compliant with the IMO’s Hong Kong Convention. Priya Blue has also sought inclusion on the European List of approved ship recycling facilities under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation — a framework intended to reflect high standards on worker safety, environmental protection, and downstream waste management. Vocal at international maritime conferences and highlighted by shipping stakeholders as evidence that beaching yards can meet global standards, Priya Blue was recently presented in the Sustainable Shipping Initiative’s Alang in Transition: From Compliance to Capability report as a showcase for improvements in Indian shipbreaking. The incident, and subsequent management of the oil spill by Priya Blue, now casts serious doubt on those claims.

 

Many issues surrounding the oil spill remain unclear, including why the LNG SOHAR was carrying 1.800 tonnes of fuel. The NGO Shipbreaking Platform has sent several questions to Priya Blue of which it so far has not received a response. [3] The LNG SOHAR was sold for scrapping in Alang by Japanese MOL and Oman’s Asyad Shipping who jointly owned the vessel. Vessels owned by Japanese NYK (LNG JAMAL – IMO 9200316) and offshore drilling contractor Transocean (DISCOVER LUANDA – IMO 9456068) were also present at Priya Blue when the incident occurred. 

 

Having informed global policy makers about the oil spill on 23 June at a UNEP Basel Convention meeting, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform calls for a ban on the beaching method, also under the IMO’s Hong Kong Convention which currently is under review. Ship recycling must take place in facilities capable of controlling spills, protecting workers, and preventing toxic releases from reaching coastal communities and the sea. When vessels are dismantled on tidal flats, no infrastructure can contain spills of toxic substances.  

In light of the above, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform calls on:  

- The Gujarat Maritime Board and the Gujarat Pollution Control Board to conduct a fully transparent investigation, publish all sampling results, and disclose the volume of oil released and the full extent of contamination;

- The European Commission to take this serious incident into account in its assessment of beaching yards that have applied for inclusion on the European List, and clearly recognize that the beaching method does not guarantee the requirements for containment under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation;

- Shipowners, including MOL, NYK and Transocean,to immediately cease sending vessels to beaching yards and instead use only facilities that provide impermeable surfaces and engineered containment provided by industrial platforms, including adequate drainage;

- The International Maritime Organization to recognize the inherent risks and structural flaws of beaching and ban the beaching method under the Hong Kong Convention.

"A Hong Kong Convention certificate is not proof that a yard is preventing harm across the full chain of dismantling and disposal. Not a single yard in Alang-Sosiya would be allowed to clone its activities on a beach in the EU. That’s why the beaching method must never be rubberstamped by the EU. The method is already banned in all large ship-owning countries - it’s high time that the shipping industry stops defending a method they would never allow on their own shores."
Ingvild Jenssen - Executive Director and Founder - NGO Shipbreaking Platform

NOTES

 

[1] Beaching remains the dominant ship dismantling method in South Asia where end-of-life vessels are deliberately run aground on mudflats and cut apart without containment, all while exposed to massive tidal differences. Beaching inevitably causes pollution: debris, heavy metal laden paint flakes, plastics, oil residues, and other hazardous materials can escape directly into the surrounding coastal zone as there is no infrastructure to contain spills, exposing workers, local communities, and fragile coastal ecosystems to unacceptable risks. This recent oil spill at Priya Blue directly counters the claim that beaching can deliver safe and environmentally sound ship recycling.

 

[2] While Priya Blue omitted information and pictures of the initial response to the oil spill in their report dated 26 June, they later admitted to the NGO Shipbreaking Platform that workers carried out emergency clean-up activities “without safety footwear” but claimed that these were employees of a third-party contractor engaged to conduct emergency operations and stated that they have implemented measures to strengthen contractor management during future emergency response activities. It is not the first time a serious incident has occurred at Priya Blue. In 2022, a fatal accident occurred at their yard V1 while a BW Offshore vessel was being dismantled.

 

[3] To establish the circumstances of the oil spill, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform has requested a detailed incident timeline from the first indication of loss of containment through source control, containment, recovery, clean-up, and regulatory notification. We also asked for a hydrocarbon mass balance reconciling the reported 63 tonnes spilled, 32 tonnes recovered, tank transfer volumes, contaminated waste quantities, dispersed oil, and any residual or unaccounted quantity, together with documentation on the disposal of recovered contaminated waste. In addition, we requested the third-party marine survey report, or a technical summary, including photos of the damage, damage dimensions, tank identification, contents, and structural findings, as well as the SOHAR’s General Arrangement and Fuel Oil System drawings.  

Press Release – EUROFER, Recycling Europe and the NGO Shipbreaking Platform urge the EU to put a stop to the double standards in the shipbreaking sector

Posted on by Nicola Mulinaris

As the European Commission is currently working on reviewing technical guidance for third-country shipbreaking facilities, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, EUROFER and Recycling Europe call for a clear ban of beaching and landing methods and the guarantee of a real level playing field for the ship recycling sector.

 

 

GALLOO ship recycling yard, Ghent, Belgium

 

Following our initial joint statement calling to boost ship recycling capacity in the EU, we welcome the European Commission’s initiative to review the technical guidelines for ship recycling yards located in third countries. Acting as an interpretation of the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, these guidelines are used by auditors to inspect and authorise ship recycling yards located in third countries to recycle EU-flagged vessels and ensure yards’ compliance. Their revision represents a key opportunity to fix the double standards embedded in the EU Ship Recycling Regulation’s current implementation.

 

In particular, we suggest the following improvements to guarantee a level playing field for ship recyclers in the EU and in third countries: 

 

- The guidelines must clearly ban beaching and landing as dismantling methods and only authorise dismantling in facilities ensuring full containment. 

 

- Ship recycling facilities in third countries should be obliged to acquire authorisations and permits needed for inclusion in the European list that are equivalent to the ones required in the EU, such as the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and operational permits clearly defining yards’ conditions and activities (1). Currently in Turkey, despite its high-risk profile, the shipbreaking sector is exempt from the Environmental Permit and Licence Regulation and EIA procedures. The lack of a clear legal framework and weak monitoring schemes in third countries, compared to those applicable to ship recycling yards in the EU, leads to many of the operational problems observed on the ground and reported by EU inspectors, including poor waste management and unsafe working conditions in both Turkey and India. 

 

- A clear timeframe for inclusion or removal of ship recycling yards must be established, including a procedure for provisional suspension of non-compliant yards.

 

- Obligations to shipowners or states coming from other regulations, such as the Basel Convention, should be included in the guidelines.

 

- The Commission’s assessment of third countries yards should also cover facilities receiving and processing secondary raw materials from these yards, including steel processing installations (2). Such facilities should apply appropriate emission control measures and operate at a level of environmental performance considered equivalent to EU standards.

 

Acknowledging the constant serious problems occurring namely in yards located in Aliağa, Turkey, together with Turkish civil society organisations, we reiterate the call to remove Turkish facilities from the EU List until necessary improvements are properly implemented. The current situation not only puts the environment and workers’ health at risk but also undermines the very objective of the List to act as the role model for best practices for the ship recycling sector. Lack of proper environmental permitting and monitoring framework in the country’s shipbreaking sector cannot be ignored by EU decision-makers anymore.

 

“The current situation, where permitting and monitoring frameworks differ between EU/EFTA Member States and third countries, are the reason why double standards persist in the shipbreaking sector. European waste, wastewater, emissions and pollution rules, as well as safety standards, should serve as the benchmark against which all ship recycling facilities in third countries are assessed, in order to ensure that no EU-flagged vessel is dismantled in substandard yards.” – Ingvild Jenssen, Executive Director, NGO Shipbreaking Platform

 

“The update of the technical guidance note is a crucial opportunity to level the playing field between third country and EU yards and put an end to persistent double standards. Recycling Europe calls on the Commission to seize this opportunity and send a strong signal in support of the European ship recycling sector, while helping raise global ship recycling standards.” – Isabelle Radovan, Policy Advisor, Recycling Europe

 

“In addition to making sure that European and third country yards operate by the same rules and standards, the Guidance document should also further strengthen the ESM equivalence applicable to downstream facilities, including steel rerollers and processing installations. Such an approach would also help ensure consistency of EU environmental policy and keep up with the ambitions of the Waste Shipment Regulation” - Aurelio Braconi, Director for Stainless and Specialty Steels and Raw Materials, Eurofer

 

The EU should continue its efforts to raise global standards in ship recycling by clearly defining rules that reflect the Union’s very own pledges to only authorise best available techniques ensuring safe and environmentally sound recycling of vessels. This ambitious mission will fail if we don't ensure that practices that would never be allowed in the EU, such as beaching or landing, are accepted on the European list.

 

You can access the Press Release document here.

NOTES

 

(1) According to the Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, Environmental Impact Assessment procedure is mandatory for projects likely to have a significant impact on the environment.

 

(2) This secondary raw material mainly consists of ferrous scrap reprocessed by ship recycling facilities.

Press Release – The EU Circular Economy Act risks missing the boat on ship recycling and true circularity

Posted on by Nicola Mulinaris

On Thursday 30/04, the final stakeholder workshop on the European Commission's impact assessment for the Circular Economy Act (CEA) held. NGO Shipbreaking Platform is concerned that the current proposal risks squandering one of Europe's most significant untapped material banks, end-of-life ships, and with it, a concrete opportunity for steel decarbonisation and material resilience.

 

NAVALEO - Les Recycleurs Bretons ship recycling yard, Brest, France

 

The CEA is expected to build a Single Market for secondary raw materials and stimulate demand for high-quality recycled content. Yet, without unlocking new material streams such as ship recycling, it will fall short its objectives. 

Why does ship recycling matter?

 

- Scale of the opportunity: the Platform's research shows that EU/EFTA-owned ships could supply up to 12 million tonnes of high-quality steel scrap per year to the European economy over the next decade;

- Material recovery: up to 95% of a ship's weight can be recovered as high-quality scrap, representing a major secondary raw material stream for the EU steel industry, and leading to the sector's decarbonisation;

- The EU stake: companies based in the EU and EFTA own about one-third of the world's fleet, placing Europe in a pivotal position to lead the transition.

The workshop revealed a critical blind spot of the proposed Act. The impact assessment focused almost exclusively on waste management measures: extensions to the WEEE Directive, construction and demolition waste, and harmonisation of End-of-Waste and EPR schemes. Higher levels of the circularity hierarchy, prevention, reuse, repair and refurbishment, were largely absent.

Primary focus on waste narrows down the Circular Economy Act simply to the waste management legislation, neglecting the very need of addressing material use throughout their lifecycle before they become a waste.

NGO Shipbreaking Platform finds the measures in the proposed Act too narrow, and urges the European Commission to address material overuse, overconsumption, and material reuse beyond the proposed prioritised recycling framework. 

Together with Recycling Europe and EUROFER, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform recently published a joint statement calling on the EU to recognise the strategic importance of the European ship recycling sector and to adopt concrete measures to keep valuable scrap steel within Europe.

The Platform calls on the European Commission to use the Circular Economy Act to: 

 

- Work across key waste legislative files to close the re-flagging loophole in the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, extending its scope to the real beneficial owners of vessels and recognising flag-swapping as a practice intended to circumvent EU rules; 

- Recognise ship-derived steel as a strategic source of secondary raw material and ship recycling as a key circular sector for steel decarbonisation; 

- Accelerate the development of a Ship Material Passport, building on the Digital Product Passport under the ESPR, to track materials from design to dismantling and enable cross-sector reuse; 

- Establish appropriate financial incentives for ship-derived materials to remain in the EU, including a ship recycling return scheme as provided for under Article 29 of the EU Ship Recycling Regulation; 

- Align shipping sector subsidies, including the tonnage tax regime, with clear circularity obligations, including end-of-life recycling at EU-approved facilities; 

- Ensure dedicated investment under LIFE, the Innovation Fund and Horizon Europe to scale EU ship recycling capacity. 

By keeping valuable steel within the EU, these actions will: 

 

- Accelerate decarbonisation – each tonne of recycled ship steel avoids up to 1.5 tonnes of CO₂ compared with primary production, while using 72% less energy and reducing air pollution by 86%; 

- Strengthen strategic material autonomy – reducing reliance on imported iron ore and coal in line with Europe's Critical Raw Materials Act objectives; 

- Create green jobs – modern ship recycling yards and green steel production generate skilled employment in engineering, environmental management and advanced manufacturing; 

- Uphold Europe's global leadership – reinforcing the EU as a front-runner in environmental stewardship, worker safety and circular economy policy. 

"Bringing ship recycling back to Europe is also a matter of environmental justice. End-of-life ships contain asbestos, PCBs, heavy metals and toxic paints. Too many EU-owned vessels are still exported for dismantling on South Asian beaches, despite severe risks to workers, coastal communities and ecosystems, and despite international prohibitions on such exports. The EU must take responsibility for its own waste."
Benedetta Mantoan - Policy Manager - NGO Shipbreaking Platform

The NGO Shipbreaking Platform will continue to follow the Commission's proposals closely and calls on EU decision-makers to deliver a Circular Economy Act that is ambitious, enforceable and fit for the realities of global ship recycling.

 

For the NGO Shipbreaking Platform's position on the Circular Economy Act, click here.

Save The Date – Ship Recycling Lab 2026: Transformation Through Innovation

Posted on by Nicola Mulinaris

After the successful organisation of two editions of the Ship Recycling Lab: Transformation Through Innovation back in 2022 and 2024, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, still recognising the need for visionary solutions for ship recycling, is ready to host its third edition of the Lab on 14 -15 October 2026 in Marseille, France.

The event will bring together forward-thinking stakeholders from the maritime, recycling and steel sectors, financial institutions and policy makers to showcase and exchange ideas for best practices and strategies for ship demolition, design, waste management and material recovery in line with ethical circular policy goals.

Providing visibility to companies that have developed solutions, including innovative cutting techniques, new state-of-the-art waste handling procedures, cradle to cradle concept design, and clean steel breakthrough technologies aimed at achieving a zero-carbon steel making process, the Lab intends to set the bar for tomorrow’s ship recycling.

Come join us and 100+ progressive stakeholders for networking opportunities, inspiring keynote speaker sessions, thought-provoking presentations and interactive panel discussions.

Early bird tickets are now on sale! Get them fast before they run out!

Ship Recycling Lab 2024, Lisbon, Portugal

Press Release – Environmental NGOs urge action after European Commission study exposes abuse of vessel flagging rules

Posted on by Nicola Mulinaris

As the European Union positions itself as a global leader on ocean governance during the EU Ocean Days in Brussels and publishes its new Maritime Industrial Strategy, civil society organisations working on ocean environmental protection, labour rights, transparency, and maritime security warn that a major governance gap remains unaddressed: the widespread use of flags of convenience (FoCs).

The call follows the publication of a recent European Commission study on the use of open registries as flags of convenience, which confirms that this system allows regulatory evasion and undermines the EU’s environmental, social, fiscal and security objectives. Yet, despite a week of high-level discussions on Europe’s maritime future and the release of the EU’s strategy to strengthen the competitiveness of the maritime sector, the issue of flags of convenience and the study’s findings have so far received little political attention and no clear follow-up.

The study highlights how FoCs rely on opaque ownership structures, weak oversight, and poor enforcement of international rules, enabling harmful practices that directly contradict EU standards, global commitments, and put responsible flag States at an unfair disadvantage. Serious concerns related to how FoCs facilitate pollution and illegal dumping, the exploitation of seafarers and shipbreaking workers, and contribute to tax avoidance and illegal fishing, are raised in the report.

The co-signing organisations stress that it is not acceptable for the EU shipping and fishing sectors to continue operating under structures that directly undermine EU environmental, fisheries, fiscal and safety policies, while at the same time benefiting from access to EU markets and resources.

Oceana: “Flags of convenience are a major enabler of illegal fishing worldwide. They allow operators to hide their identity, evade sanctions and continue fishing illegally under new flags. The European Commission’s study confirms what civil society has long demanded: without full transparency on who owns, controls and profits from fishing vessels, the EU cannot credibly combat illegal fishing and protect the marine environment.”

 

WWF European Policy Office: “By its very nature, illegal fishing is hard to detect and monitor. Flags of convenience make that job exponentially harder, harming the fishers who follow the rules but suffer when fish stocks run low. As one of the world’s top seafood importers, the EU must lead by example and maintain a zero-tolerance approach to illegal fishing, including flags of convenience.”

 

Opportunity Green: "International shipping benefits from multiple gaps in international governance, allowing it to have large climate impacts without even paying the standard taxes paid by most corporations. The EU needs to look at the entire shipping industry and ensure that, instead of companies earning billions without paying taxes, they are subject to the same standard regulations as all other industries. The flag of convenience regime is an unnecessary exemption from usual rules given to a polluting industry."

 

NGO Shipbreaking Platform: “The study’s findings expose severe governance failures at the end of a ship’s life. Flags such as St Kitts and Nevis, Comoros, Palau and Tuvalu are widely used for last voyages to the shipbreaking beaches in South Asia, to circumvent EU regulations on the scrapping of toxic ships. The Commission has already recognised flag-swapping as the key obstacle to implementing the Ship Recycling Regulation. Yet, no further action has been taken to fix this issue and hold shipowners accountable.”

The Commission’s own findings make clear that flags of convenience are not an enforcement anomaly but a structural governance failure driven by a prioritisation of profits, which results in reduced effectiveness of regulatory frameworks and lenient oversight.

In light of the study’s evidence, the co-signing organisations call on the European Commission to:

- Close the data gap that allows the proliferation of flags of convenience by requiring comprehensive and reliable data on vessel beneficial ownership, flag history, and compliance records across all maritime sectors, including mandatory disclosure for foreign-flagged vessels owned or controlled by EU interests;

- Collaborate with EU Member States to systematically collect and regularly share relevant vessel information with international databases and monitoring platforms, including the FAO Global Record of Fishing Vessels, Refrigerated Transport Vessels and Supply Vessels and relevant Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (RFMO) vessel registries to curb illegal fishing;

- Integrate decisive measures across EU maritime and ocean governance frameworks, including the upcoming EU Ocean Act, fisheries policy, tax governance, maritime security and ship recycling rules, to discourage and prevent the use of flags of convenience.

The co-signing organisations urge the EU to act without delay to discourage, disincentivise or dismantle those structures that enable such practices and to secure the long-term sustainability, integrity, and credibility of EU maritime governance.

Benedetta Mantoan, Policy Manager, NGO Shipbreaking Platform

Irene Campmany Canes, Senior Communications Officer, Oceana in Europe

Amélie Giardini, Global Lead for Transparency, the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF)

Aoife O’Leary, CEO, Opportunity Green

Jacob Armstrong, Policy Manager, WWF European Policy Office

 

NOTES

 

[1] A flag of convenience is used when a vessel is registered in a country with which its owner has no genuine link, allowing operators to benefit from low costs and taxes, weak controls and limited enforcement. This practice creates regulatory havens at sea and enables environmental damage, labour exploitation and illegal fishing.

 

 

Press Release – Turkish civil society organisations reiterate their call to remove Aliağa shipbreaking yards from the EU list amid environmental damage and systemic negligence

Posted on by Nicola Mulinaris

Members of Turkish organisations raise alarm about critical levels of pollution in Aliağa, as well as severe systemic mismanagement, and continue their call to remove Turkish shipbreaking yards from the EU list of ship recycling facilities until necessary improvements are introduced by the Turkish authorities and the yards.

 

On 24 February, representatives of Turkish civil society organisations [1] met with representatives of the European Commission from DG ENV. Supported by Brussels-based NGO Shipbreaking Platform and the European Environmental Bureau, the organisations informed the Commission about the severe environmental degradation caused by shipbreaking activities in Aliağa, as well as pending legal cases [2] addressing systemic issues in the sector. 

An open letter requesting the removal of Aliağa-based shipbreaking yards was sent to the European Commission in November last year, in which the parties requested the removal of Turkish yards from the EU list based on de facto double operating standards and significant environmental and health risks. 

According to a recent report, the area is heavily contaminated with Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). These pollutants, some of which are currently regulated or banned under the Aarhus Protocol and the Stockholm Convention, come from industrial activities, and are very difficult to remove from the environment once they have been released. The findings show that the shipbreaking area contains the highest levels of POPs, clearly pointing to the ship recycling yards as the main source of contamination.  

Several serious incidents at Aliağa shipbreaking yards have occurred these past months, including at yards that remain on the EU List. On 20 February, during the dismantling of the LILY HA (IMO 8116972) at Avşar Ship Recycling yard, an EU-listed facility, unidentified liquid substances were discharged directly into the sea. The incident was reported by a local whistleblower, who alerted the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, as well as the European Commission. Avşar has stated to the NGO Shipbreaking Platform that the liquid thrown overboard the LILY HA was a biochemical cleaner used to remedy pollution originating from outside their yard, and in line with the facility's relevant procedures. No incident report is, however, available. 

Another accident happened on 8 January at the EU-listed Leyal yard, where GNV Antares (IMO 8503797) collided with an oil platform in the neighbouring Metaş yard, causing serious damage and flooding at the stern, including the engine room.  Since then, oil residue, likely mixed with other pollutants, has been continuously and deliberately being discharged into the sea through pipes. 

As seen in a video taken on 28 January, the tower of the oil rig that crashed into the GNV Antares was pulled down and dropped directly into the sea during dismantling operations.

The problems caused by the shipbreaking activities in Aliağa, including incidents such as those mentioned above, were thoroughly examined in the report on Turkish yards written by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform. 

NGO Shipbreaking Platform supports the Turkish civil society organisations and backs their call to cancel the EU approvals for Aliağa-based shipbreaking yards, and furthermore requests that the EU thoroughly investigate the recent incidents that have occurred at EU approved facilities. We also call on Turkish authorities to effectively monitor, take action to clamp down on breaches, and support the transitioning of the sector to industrial solutions that can ensure full containment. The recent incidents illustrate the inherent risks of using the landing method which should be phased out.  

"NGO Shipbreaking Platform supports the Turkish civil society organisations and backs their call to cancel the EU approvals for Aliağa-based shipbreaking yards, and furthermore requests that the EU thoroughly investigate the recent incidents that have occurred at EU approved facilities. We also call on Turkish authorities to effectively monitor, take action to clamp down on breaches, and support the transitioning of the sector to industrial solutions that can ensure full containment. The recent incidents illustrate the inherent risks of using the landing method which should be phased out. "
Ekin Sakin - Policy Officer - NGO Shipbreaking Platform

The EU List of ship recycling facilities currently contains 10 ship recycling yards in Turkey. Since 2016, 4 Turkish yards have been removed from the EU list. 

 

NOTES

 

[1] Representatives of the following organisations were present: Izmir Medical Chamber, Istanbul Health and Safety Watch, Aegean Environment and Culture Platform, Izmir Living Spaces, Foça Environmental Platform, Turkish Medical Association, Foça Platform Against the Plundering of History and Nature, İzmir Chambers of Environmental Engineers. 

 

[2] Shipbreaking facilities in Turkey are exempt from the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure, which is mandatory for the EU-located yards. The exemption issue is currently pending before the Constitutional Court of Turkey. 

 

 

Press Release – EU Industrial Maritime Strategy: Commitment to boost EU-based ship recycling capacity must be backed by concrete funding and measures and a true level playing field

Posted on by Nicola Mulinaris

The European Commission published on Wednesday 5 March its Industrial Maritime Strategy, an important milestone in supporting the European maritime industry. While the strategy acknowledges the importance of ship recycling and the need to strengthen the sector within the EU, it lacks actionable measures to scale up capacity. The strategy’s reference to cooperating with India moreover risks accentuating the unfair competition currently faced by EU yards which today remain underutilised. Without clear targeted support, and an unambiguous plan to boost domestic capacity, the EU risks missing a critical opportunity to meet its climate and circularity objectives.

Although EU/EFTA shipping companies own over 35% of the global fleet, only 1% of EU-owned ships are today dismantled in the EU. According to our research, about 12 000 EU/EFTA-owned vessels will become eligible for scrapping in the next decade. Boosting European capacities for ship recycling is therefore timely and will provide key sectors with access to high quality scrap steel, as recently called for by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, EUROFER and Recycling Europe.

In this context, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform welcomes the European Commission’s commitment to “explore ways to support the expansion of domestic EU ship recycling capacity”. As outlined in our report Scrap Steel at Sea, ship scrap steel represents a valuable feedstock for steel producers, who, by using scrap instead of virgin materials, can achieve substantial savings in water and energy, reduction of CO2 emissions, while also reducing reliance on imported raw materials vulnerable to geopolitical disruptions. 

While the Industrial Maritime Strategy signals a step in the right direction, clear commitments are, however, needed to ensure that the targeted funds announced for the maritime industry give specific attention to developing a competitive European ship recycling sector.

The announced EU Industrial Maritime Value Chains Alliance could in that regard play a pivotal role by mapping existing ship recycling capacities, identifying the investments required to scale them up in response to the forthcoming surge of end-of-life vessels, and assessing the associated job creation potential.  

The strategic importance of the EU ship recycling sector in strengthening the bloc’s material resilience should furthermore be explicitly aligned with the other key policies, such as the Industrial Accelerator Act and Circular Economy Act. Finally, to effectively enable broader uptake of low-carbon maritime scrap-based or upcycled steel in lead markets, binding criteria for recycled content in public procurement [1] should be adopted.

The NGO Shipbreaking Platform supports the European Commission’s commitment to engage at the international level to strengthen the Hong Kong Convention [2] and align it with the EU Ship Recycling Regulation. However, while ensuring fair competition with third countries is one of the Commission’s main objectives, the Strategy does not address the unfair competition faced by EU ship recycling yards, including from substandard non-EU yards approved under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation. Also, as the Commission commits to "work with trading partners with ship-recycling capacity, starting with India [3], to foster high environmental and social standard”, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform warns that Indian shipbreaking yards still rely fully on the beaching method and that any rubberstamping of this lowest standard in ship recycling, not allowed in the EU, would undermine efforts aimed at boosting EU capacity and a level playing field that fosters fair competition.  

"India currently does not have the capacities to recycle ships in a safe and environmentally sound manner. EU cooperation with third countries, including India, on ship recycling, must be based on the enforcement of strict social, occupational health and environmental standards as applied in the EU, clearly banning harmful practices such as beaching or landing as practiced in South Asia and Turkey respectively. Besides, international and EU waste laws are clear on the illegality of exporting hazardous waste, including end-of-life ships, from the EU to India."
Ingvild Jenssen - Founder and Executive Director - NGO Shipbreaking Platform

The NGO Shipbreaking Platform stands ready to collaborate with the Commission and maritime stakeholders to implement the Industrial Maritime Strategy and go beyond to ensure that effective measures are in place to foster the safe and environmentally sound dismantling of all European ships. 

 

NOTES

 

[1] Additionally, as the Commission plans to leverage public procurement in relevant segments, such as ferries or research vessels, it should also consider making it mandatory for public vessels to be recycled within the EU. Notably, Germany currently sends its military ships for recycling in Aliağa, Turkey. 

[2] The Hong Kong Convention does not provide for safe and environmentally sound ship recycling as it lacks robust safety, environmental and labour protection standards, fails to prohibit the beaching method, and ignores the management and accountability of hazardous wastes downstream, rubber-stamping with that unsafe and polluting shipbreaking practices that continue to harm workers, local communities and fragile coastal ecosystems. 

[3] This only comes a few weeks after the EU announced planning to “pursue cooperation [with India] to support sustainable ship recycling activities.”

 

Press Release – U.S. Shipping Line Matson backtracks on commitment to not dump their old ships on South Asian Beaches

Posted on by Nicola Mulinaris

Environmental and Human Rights Groups condemn decision as Mokihana sails out of the U.S. to India

 

The Basel Action Network (BAN) and the NGO Shipbreaking Platform today condemned Matson Shipping Lines for proceeding with the export of its former U.S.-flagged vessel MOKIHANA for scrapping at the notorious shipbreaking beaches of Alang, India. This last voyage is a blatant reversal of Matson’s policy established together with BAN and the NGO Shipbreaking Platform in 2015 (1) to avoid beach-based ship dismantling, and represents a serious affront to the company’s stated ESG commitments.

 

The vessel has now been reflagged to St. Kitts and Nevis, a flag of convenience commonly used for end-of-life ships headed for scrapping, and renamed MOKHIA. According to publicly available vessel tracking data, the ship is listed as en route to Bhavnagar, India, the port serving the Alang shipbreaking yards.

 

As of 2 February 2026 at 14:42 UTC, the vessel was reported to be operating under its own power in the Pacific Ocean, at approximately 23.98° N latitude and 149.61° E longitude, with an estimated arrival in Bhavnagar on 25 February 2026.

"This sequence of actions - reflagging, renaming, and dispatching the vessel to the Alang region - is a regrettable retreat from corporate responsibility and appropriate end-of-life ship management policy. It directly contradicts Matson’s prior public commitments to avoid beach-based shipbreaking and is a violation of the Basel Convention, calling into question the credibility of Matson’s ESG commitments."
Jim Puckett - Founder and Chief of Strategic Direction - BAN

In 2015, Matson publicly committed to ending the use of South Asian tidal beaches for shipbreaking, following international criticism of the environmental and human-health impacts of the practice. The decision to send MOKHIA to Bhavnagar marks a clear policy reversal, returning to the very practices Matson once pledged to abandon.

 

In a letter to BAN and the NGO Platform, Ms. Rachel Lee, the company’s Vice President of Sustainability and Governance, cited exporting to a beaching facility that supposedly adheres to the Hong Kong Convention as a rationalization for the export. However, in India no shipbreaking yards have so far been authorized under the Hong Kong Convention. Moreover, the Hong Kong Convention does not regulate transboundary waste movements, a gap long criticized by environmental and labor organizations, while the Basel Convention explicitly governs such exports and forbids trade between Parties like India and non-Parties like the United States. Under the Basel Convention, end-of-life vessels containing any forms of hazardous materials are considered hazardous waste, and their export is strictly controlled and in this case, prohibited.

"Beaching remains the most dangerous and polluting form of ship disposal in the world. But companies continue to make use of the beaching yards because this practice offers significantly lower costs than safe, contained recycling alternatives, often through the exploitation of desperate and vulnerable labor forces (2). Changing the name of the ship and its flag does not change the environmental reality on the ground, or the lack of corporate responsibility for sending it there.”"
Ingvild Jenssen - Founder and Executive Director - NGO Shipbreaking Platform

BAN and the NGO Shipbreaking Platform emphasize that the dismantling of end-of-life ships on tidal mudflats externalizes toxic risks onto workers and coastal communities, exposing them to hazardous substances such as asbestos, heavy metals and oil residues, and undermines global efforts to promote safe, contained, and truly sustainable ship recycling.

"This is not responsible recycling. It is a retreat from leadership, and a direct contradiction of Matson’s own ESG narrative."
Jim Puckett - Founder and Chief of Strategic Direction - BAN

The organizations are calling on regulators, investors, and customers to scrutinize Matson’s actions closely and to demand that the company immediately recommit to abiding by the Basel Convention, as well as to only utilize off-the-beach, fully contained ship recycling methods, and protecting the human rights of the world’s most vulnerable laborers.