GALLOO ship recycling yard, Ghent, Belgium

© GALLOO

- Between 2019 and 2025, only 22% of EU ships were recycled in an EU facility, representing just 5% of the total recycling tonnage;

- Nearly half were beached in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan - representing 66% of total tonnage. 102 ships swapped their EU flag to another flag shortly before dismantling to avoid stricter EU rules;

- In 2020, EU recycling capacity stood at 2.1 million Light Displacement Tonnes (LDT). Yet of the 1.4 million LDT of EU-owned tonnage dismantled that year, over two-thirds ended up on South Asian beaches;

- EU facilities can accommodate large vessels, with at least 6 to 8 yards capable of recycling ships up to 330 meters long.

The vast majority of EU-owned or EU-flagged ships are being scrapped under poor conditions in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, while EU-located ship recycling facilities operate under capacity, a new study from the NGO Shipbreaking Platform and T&E shows. This is both an environmental scandal and a loss of high-quality materials for the EU economy, say the NGOs, who issued a report concluding that the EU has enough domestic capacity to recycle all EU-flagged and EU-owned vessels.

Between 2019 and 2025, 706 EU-flagged and/or EU-owned ships were dismantled worldwide. Only 22% were recycled in EU-located facilities, representing just 5% of the total tonnage. Nearly half were beached in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan - 66% of total tonnage. The remaining ships were dismantled mostly in Turkish shipbreaking yards.

South Asian shipbreaking relies on beaching, with ships being dismantled directly on the beach with no containment. This practice leads to water and ground contamination through the discharge of hazardous materials. Additionally, dangerous working conditions due to operating on a tidal mudflat are also a major concern.

The EU Waste Shipment Regulation prohibits ships becoming waste in EU waters from being exported to a non-OECD country, while the EU Ship Recycling Regulation requires EU-flagged vessels to use an EU-approved facility. In reality, most of the EU-owned fleet continues to be scrapped in substandard yards in South Asia, with shipowners either reflagging their ships or fraudulently claiming to continue operations to evade waste export restrictions. As a result, the EU continues to export toxic waste in the form of end-of-life vessels. As many as 102 ships swapped their EU flag for another flag shortly before dismantling to avoid EU restrictions.

In July, the European Commission announced plans to add the first beaching ship recycling facilities to the EU’s approved list. This will make it easier to dump ships overseas, say the Shipbreaking Platform and T&E. EU-based yards operate under high environmental and labour standards. Approving substandard beaching yards would penalise responsible European industry and reward harmful practices that are effectively not approved in EU Member States.

Disclaimer: With some EU-flagged vessels being also EU-owned, some ships are counted twice in this graph. Consequently, the overall LDT of ships dismantled each year is most likely overestimated. This only reinforces the  conclusion that the EU has sufficient recycling capacity.

In 2020, the year with the biggest number of ships dismantled worldwide, EU facilities had an overall recycling capacity of 2.1 million light displacement tonnes (LDT) while the total of EU-owned ships dismantled that year amounted to 1.4 million LDT. Over two-thirds of EU-owned tonnage was dismantled on beaches in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Every vessel beached could have been accommodated by a minimum of 6 to 8 EU yards.

Up to 95% of the weight of a ship can be recycled as high-quality scrap steel. In a previous report, the Shipbreaking Platform concluded that almost 12,000 EU-owned ships would reach end of life in the next decade, which could yield up to 12 million tonnes of steel yearly. Shipbreaking in Europe represents a major economic opportunity.