NGO Shipbreaking Platform

Title: NGO Shipbreaking Platform

Summary: The NGO Shipbreaking Platform is an international campaign and advocacy network of 18 environmental, human and labour rights organisations from ship-owning and shipbreaking countries. Its aim is to prevent the dumping of end-of-life vessels containing hazardous waste on beaches in developing countries and to ensure clean, safe and fair ship recycling. At the centre of the NGO’s work programme is the creation of incentives for diverting traffic away from breaking beaches to green ship recyclers. Its main objective is to broaden the legal and financial liability of ship owners in order to bring about this move towards better management of end-of-life vessels.

A second main objective is to provide marketplace incentives to encourage ship owners, investors, major cargo owners and forwarders to make responsible decisions and demand clean and safe recycling and logistics. Specifically, the NGO will promote EU policies and legislation on ship recycling that incorporate the ‘polluter pays principle’ for ship owners that visit European ports and are based on the principles of environmental justice and human rights. It will also promote those practices that contribute to a sustainable circular and resource-efficient economy and to the reduction of the use of hazardous materials in the construction of ships. The NGO is further encouraging European ship owners to implement fully EU policy and only sell their end-of-life vessels to EU-approved ship recycling facilities.

To reach this goal, it will focus on conducting advocacy work, including research, communications and capacity building, on a dual track aimed at influencing both policymakers and industry stakeholders to further develop and implement EU policies and legislation on ship recycling. The NGO will contribute to debates on the new EU Regulation on Ship Recycling to ensure that it delivers concrete measures to change current shipbreaking practices.

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