Shipbreaking: Revisiting a Waste Dumping Crisis | Basel OEWG-14 Side Event

End-of-life vessels are hazardous waste, yet the vast majority of large ocean going ships containing residue oils, toxic laden paints, asbestos and many more harmful substances, are still being scrapped under dangerous conditions on three tidal mudflats in South Asia, without capacity to manage the many waste streams in a safe and environmentally sound manner.
The International Maritime Organisation’s Hong Kong Convention will enter-into-force in June 2025. Adopted in 2009, the shipping industry claims it will resolve the current crisis. However, alone, the Hong Kong Convention will fail: it stops at the ship recycling facility gate as it does not cover hazardous waste management downstream, and it does not restrict the trade of hazardous wastes with the aim of protecting developing countries. ESM and PIC are not part of the Hong Kong Convention. Illegal trafficking is not criminalised under the Hong Kong Convention.. The Basel Convention therefore has an important role to play, not in the backseat of the IMO, but as guarantors of environmental justice and promotors of reduction at source for optimised material recovery. In 2011, the Cartagena Basel Conference of the Parties did not find that the Hong Kong Convention provides an equivalent level of protection. Since then, the Basel Ban Amendment has entered into force and several ship owners have been held liable for the illegal trade of waste ships. The European Union has adopted its own Ship Recycling Regulation that goes beyond the weak standard set by the IMO, and just last year the United Arab Emirates adopted its own Ship Recycling Regulation which bans beaching.
The event will provide a re-cap on these developments, showcase the problems of status quo, and outline the many reasons why the Basel Convention is part of the solution.
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