Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Lloyd's Register advises ship recyclers on meeting the challenges
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
Of the new IMO convention on ship recycling Speaking at the Ship Recycling Forum in Dubai on January 19, Lloyd's Register's Robin Townsend explained to delegates just how the new standard for ship recycling, ISO 30000, can help meet the challenges facing the ship demolition industry once the new IMO International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships comes into force. The forum, chaired by Nikos Mikelis, Senior Implementation Officer with the IMO's Marine Environment Division was held to assess the impact of the IMO convention on shipowners, shipbuilders and maritime suppliers, ship recyclers, and governments and administrations. Townsend told the forum it was important for the industry to understand how ISO 30000 could work along side the IMO recycling convention after the convention's adoption and entry into force. That process is now far advanced. The final draft of the IMO's recycling convention was approved at MEPC 58 in October 2008, and is now due to be adopted at the IMO diplomatic conference in Hong Kong in May 2009.
Based on the 'plan - do - check - act' principle, ISO 30000 lays down a template that requires its user to set out a ship recycling policy, said Townsend. It would begin with planning for aspects of the recycling process: legal, statutory and other requirements; objectives, targets and programmes.
"Essentially, ISO 30000 applies to the entire process," said Townsend: "from accepting a ship for recycling by the facility to assessing the hazards onboard the ship. It works by identifying and complying with any applicable notification and import requirements for ships to be recycled and covers every aspect to carrying out the recycling process in a safe and environmentally sound manner. It covers conducting required training; ensuring the availability of social amenities (e.g. first aid, health checks, food and beverages); storage and processing of materials and wastes from the ship; waste stream and recycling stream management, including contractual agreements; and documentation controls for the process, including any applicable notification of the final disposal of the vessel.
"The performance of each of the above is then subjected to rigorous checking, including monitoring and measurement; evaluation of compliance; non-conformance and corrective and preventive action; control of records and an internal audit. And finally the process concludes with a management review with the aim of achieving continuous improvement."
Townsend said although ISO 30000 was a voluntary code, its standards were of degree sufficient to satisfy regulators, law enforcers and stakeholders. And he added that it had already met approval from the European Union.
The EU's EMSA Study on the Certification of Ship Recycling Facilities reported: 'With regards to the ship recycling facilities, ISO 30000 will ensure a more focused management system and a higher performance level with regards to health, safety and environment than any of the other standards mentioned.'
Source: Lloyd’s Register
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