A new international rule book for what happens to old ships goes into force next year, but shipowners are worried it will clash with existing regulations and those falling afoul of the rules could end up in prison.

“What we want is clarity about what rules a shipowner must abide by," said Gudrun Janssens, intergovernmental engagement manager at the Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO), one of the world's largest shipping associations.

The issue comes to a head starting on March 18, when the International Maritime Organization's Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) meets to discuss environmental issues among its members.

Until now, the main international regulation on scrapping ships has been the Basel Convention, which went into effect in 1992.

It's a broader pact that regulates the movement of hazardous waste between countries, but also covers ship recycling.

However, vessels destined to be scrapped often make their final voyages under different flags, meaning that they may be more difficult to track and uncover the real owners, which makes it hard to monitor what happens to the ships and any substances like asbestos, PCB and waste oils they may be carrying.

That's why the U.N.'s International Maritime Organization (IMO) was given the job of shepherding through a new guidebook specifically designed for ships.

The Hong Kong Convention was signed in 2009 and goes into effect in June 2025.

But the new rules can clash with the old ones, warned Janssens, potentially putting shipowners at risk.

Once a ship is cleared for recycling with a certificate under the Hong Kong Convention, the vessel may at the same time be considered hazardous waste under the Basel Convention.

During the entire validity period of the certificate, which lasts up to three months, the owners of the ship risk arrest in certain ports for breaching the Basel Convention.

“For example, a Dutch-owned ship, flying the flag of Japan and carrying Japanese goods, heading for ship recycling in India, might get in trouble with the Dutch authorities for staying in the port of Rotterdam, where the government might choose to apply Basel Convention rules,” said Janssens.

Penalties are dished out by member states of the IMO.

The IMO did not comment directly on the issue when contacted by POLITICO, but said it would discuss a submission on the potential issue of recycling convention overlaps at its MEPC meeting next week.

“In contrast, the Hong Kong Convention considers the track of a ship from cradle to grave. Parts of the regulation that clash with Basel need to be resolved. How that should be achieved, is up to the IMO,” said Janssens, adding: "However, we cannot have shipowners operating internationally and potentially risking prison sentences."

But even the Hong Kong Convention is coming under fire from green groups which argue it is too lax.

“We are of the opinion that the Hong Kong Convention does not protect developing countries from the dumping of hazardous ship waste. The standards for ship recycling are much higher under the Basel Convention,” said Ingvild Jenssen, the executive director and founder of the Shipbreaking Platform NGO, which works to minimize the environmental and human impact of ship recycling.

“There are problems with both conventions in how easily the shipping sector can circumvent them,” said Jenssen.

Under Basel, the export of a ship considered toxic is often circumvented by providing false accounts of the vessel not being destined for scrap but instead heading off for repair work.

Jenssen worried that the Hong Kong Convention could be dodged by sailing under the flag of a nation that largely closes its eyes to maritime law and is known for dealing in end-of-life vessels.

Even though the Hong Kong Convention comes into force next year, both the NGO and the industry still see a future for the Basel Convention in ship recycling.

“The Basel Convention will remain applicable for end-of-life vessels, as long as there is no other convention that can replace that, which provides an equivalent level of control,” said Jenssen. 

Basel is especially useful once ships are beached or put into facilities for scrapping, said Janssens, "However, handling transboundary movement will remain tricky.”

Original Story By | Jeremy Van Der Haegen