'One Ship, One Death': The Environmental and Ethical Implications of the Ship Recycling Industry

Authored by - Sitara Srinivas

Edited by - Kausumi Saha

Part 3 of a three-part series on the Ship Recycling Industry In India. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Read the paper here.

The next few years are predicted to see a boom in the ship recycling industry, for reasons that include the financial slowdown at the global level, and the passing of the Recycling of Ships Act, 2019 and ratification of the Hong Kong Convention at the domestic level. This paper, the second in the two-part series on ship recycling, engages with the implications of this boom, both on the lives of workers and the environment. It additionally contextualises the politics of waste – specifically, the global waste trade, and highlights the possibility of a refocus from ship recycling to ship building in the country.