Maritime economy
The first German shipyard receives approval for ship recycling
Old ships have to be scrapped and in the best case recycled. So far, however, shipyards have been missing in Germany that can offer this. That should change now.
For the first time, maritime vessels in Germany are to be scrapped and recycled. As the first German company, EWD Benli Recycling GmbH received the necessary approval for ship recycling from authorities, the parent company, the Emder Werft and Dock GmbH (EWD), said.
At the request of the German Press Agency, the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Environment in Hanover confirmed that, according to the authority, it was the first such approval of ship recycling.
“The need is great – especially because the ships are quite old and so far nobody has been able to recycle these ships within Germany,” said the company on request.
Where sea ships have so far been scrapped
In ship recycling, experts not only see a new branch for the German Maritime industry, but also an approach to protect resources. By obtaining recyclable materials such as steel or components from old ships, they can flow back into the material cycle.
“It is an environmental policy disaster that in recent decades we have been sending out-of-up industrial shops in particular to Southeast Asia, where they rotted under the worst environmental and social conditions,” said Lower Saxony’s Environment Minister Christian Meyer (Greens) of the German Press Agency.
According to the Association of the German Shipowners, around 700 seagoing ships are decommissioned worldwide. So far, about 90 percent of these old ships have so far been scrapped and recycled in South Asia, especially in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. In addition to the costs, requirements for environmental and occupational safety are significantly lower than in Europe.
An EU regulation already regulates that ships of a certain size and those under the EU flag can only be scraped off on approved recycled shipyards of an EU list. Many of them are in Turkey. Since, from the middle of this year, uniform rules for the safe and environmentally friendly recycling of ships apply, the industry also increases the competitiveness of scrapping in the EU.
Such a maritime recycling sector could also be created in Germany. In addition to the EWD, according to earlier information, Bremer Leviathan GmbH also tried for approval for ship recycling at the Stralsund Volkswerft.
dpa
Source: Stern
