Policy compliance recommendations for international shipbreaking treaties for Bangladesh

The ship breaking industry in Bangladesh is challenged to balance economic goals with improving environmental and human health conditions. Since ship breaking is an inherently international industry, Bangladesh as a major shipbreaking party needs to adjust its national policy strategy to harmonize with international rules, regulations, and decision making. The Hong Kong International Convention on the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (HKC) and the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste and their Disposal (BC) regulate how ships are sold, managed, traded, and scrapped. A policy gap analysis was used to determine whether and how current Bangladesh national policies conform with international shipbreaking conventions and to identify gaps in regulatory enforcement. Key informants' interviews were used to obtain expert opinions on existing policies and a grounded theory approach for data analysis. Although national laws do conform with international conventions, Bangladesh authorities are currently not able to fully implement either national or international regulations as they lack the necessary financial and technical capacity for monitoring and enforcement. In accordance with the “polluter pays principle,” the international shipbreaking policy regime should utilize a deposit-refund system to rectify the lack of capacity in developing countries to comply with regulations. Given initial estimates presented here, a global fund adequate to upgrade all facilities in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan (to recycle the current flow of end-of-life ships) could be fully financed by a deposit of ~0.3% of a new ship's purchase price per year.