Material flow analysis (MFA) as a tool to improve ship recycling

The ship owner's decision to select a recycling yard for dismantling and recycling an end-of-life ship is primarily influenced by the price offered for purchasing the ship. The recycling yards offering 'green' recycling services generally quote lower prices than other yards due to the higher cost of dismantling a ship by following international ship recycling regulations and health, safety and environmental (HSE) management systems. Such 'green' recycling yards must either lower their costs or increase their revenues to offer better prices to ship owners compared to the yards which have primitive or non-existent HSE standards. This article analyzes multi-disciplinary scientific tools and techniques that can be used to make 'green' ship recycling economically attractive to ship owners without compromising HSE standards. Material flow analysis (MFA) has been found to be a suitable tool to analyze and plan the ship recycling process. This allows ship recycling yards to better manage waste and resources, thereby reducing costs. The material flow diagrams for a bulk carrier (case ship), showing the generic ship recycling process, are also developed and discussed. The analysis approach used in this article shows one way of introducing analytical tools into ship recycling planning and process assessment.