The treaty regulating ship recycling will enter into force in June 2025. The Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (the Hong Kong Convention) will introduce global regulations to ensure ships at the end of their operational lives are recycled safely and without posing unnecessary risks to human health and the environment.
The date of the Convention’s entry into force was triggered when Bangladesh and Liberia became Contracting States to it, marking the moment that all necessary criteria were met. Read more here.
IMO has produced a video which outlines the need for universal ship recycling regulations. The film also explains how IMO is helping Member States improve the environmental and safety standards in their ship recycling industries in line with the requirements of the Hong Kong Convention.
You can watch the video here.
Almost all ship recycling worldwide is carried out in five countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan and Türkiye, three of which - Bangladesh, India and Türkiye - are Parties to the Hong Kong Convention.
Bangladesh is one of the world's largest ship recycling countries by capacity. To help it to reach the point where it was ready to accede to the Hong Kong Convention IMO provided the country’s government with support through the Norwegian-funded project on Safe and Environmentally Sound Ship Recycling in Bangladesh (SENSREC).
The SENSREC project provides legal policy support and on-the-ground assistance in recycling yards which has helped Bangladesh improve its ship recycling standards and ensure the safety of its workforce in one of the country’s most important industries.
Read more here about the issue of ship recycling and the Hong Kong Convention.