End-of-life ships are sold for scrap steel to shipbreaking yards, with cash buyers acting as
intermediaries. They mostly choose yards on beaches in India, Bangladesh, or Pakistan. The
practice of shipbreaking directly on the beach is called beaching. It exposes workers and the
environment to hazardous and toxic substances from the ships. Accidents are prevalent as
workers do not have suitable protective equipment. The shipowner decides when to sell the ship
for breaking depending on the freight prices. The decision as to which shipbreaking yard they
will sell the ship to is based on the price the shipbreakers are willing to pay for the ship, and
that depends on labor costs and costs of following social and environmental regulations. Basel
Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their
Disposal regulates the ship breaking practice on the international level until the Hong Kong
International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships enters
into force in June 2025. In the European Union, the ship scrapping industry is regulated by the
European Union Ship Recycling Regulation, which also introduced the European list of
approved ship recycling yards. Shipowners can easily circumvent the regulations by changing
the ship's flag to an end-of-life flag of convenience.
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