"Death Vessels: Upcoming Industry Transformation Raises Concerns About Greenwashing"

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Watch Dateline’s latest episode about Bangladesh’s ship-breaking industry on 10 June at 9.30pm AEST on SBS or SBS On Demand.  

Ship cutter Delwar Hossain’s job might be killing him but he’s worried he’ll lose it.

If his scrapyard doesn’t turn “green” by the end of June, he won’t have ships to cut, or money to feed his wife and two young children.

And the notoriously polluted Bangladeshi beach where he works will soon lose most of its end-of-life cargo ships being cut apart in the mud.

Over 90 per cent of Chittagong’s beach scrapyards will be rendered idle when an international treaty comes into legal force on 26 June.

After this date, Bangladesh’s government won’t allow end-of-life ships to be imported by scrapyards that are not compliant with the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships. They will have to obtain a “green” certificate or face closure.

A man with beard and wearing a dark green t-shirt

Shipcutters such as Delwar Hossain are engaged in dirty and dangerous work. Source: SBS / Louis Dai

The president of the Bangladesh Ship Breakers and Recyclers Association (BSBRA), Mohammed Zahirul Islam, estimates 80 per cent of the workforce will lose their jobs as a result.

“We have more than 50,000 people working directly in this industry, and so after June this year, maybe 10,00 will be employed and the other 40,000 workers will be out of work,” he says.

He says only seven out of their 114 member scrapyards are currently compliant.

He expects that number to rise to 20 yards by the end of the year, but other industry watchers say the figure will be more like 10.

And the industry’s critics would like the number to be zero.

The world’s ship graveyard

Chittagong, also known as Chattogram, is Bangladesh’s second largest city and the world’s leading ship breaker by steel tonnage.

Last year, almost 40 per cent of the world’s scrapped vessels met their end on the city’s muddy beachline, according to BSBRA figures.

It’s also a notoriously polluting and dangerous industry.

Workers like Delwar cut gigantic cargo ships apart with handheld oxytorches so metal and parts can be scrapped, reused or recycled.

Apart from the risk of injury and death from falls or falling steel, workers are exposed to toxic dust, smoke and chemicals, often working barefoot and without protective masks.

In the last five years of records, there were at least 38 deaths and 177 injuries in Bangladeshi shipbreaking yards, according to IndustriALL Union Group, an international trade union.

Broken rusty carcasses of old cargo ships beached in the mud

Once cargo ships are put out of service and bought by Bangladeshi scrapyards, they are beached ashore to be dismantled. This practice is known to be extremely polluting as toxic materials found on old ships contaminate ocean waters and soil. Source: SBS / Colin Cosier

Delwar has previously injured his back, and his cough suggests that more damage is taking a toll.

“When we’re cutting, smoke fills the air and over time it causes respiratory issues and infections,” he says.

For this gruelling work, he makes 600 taka ($7.70) per shift — not enough, he says, and less than other jobs.  

“Honestly, I don’t enjoy it. But I need to take care of my family so I don’t have a choice.”

Accusations of greenwashing  

Numerous critics say there is no safe or clean way to break ships on a beach in Bangladesh, nor would such a practice be allowed in a developed country.

They also say the Hong Kong convention is flawed and doesn’t address key issues that have long plagued the industry: labour rights, pollution, and the skirting of an existing treaty that prevents wealthy countries and companies from sending hazardous ships to Bangladesh. 

An old washing machine covered in plastic and stacks of orange life-saving rings at a scrapyard

Some scavenged items from broken ships such as washing machines, life jackets, and kitchen sinks end up at flea markets and in people’s homes. Source: SBS / Colin Cosier

The NGO Shipbreaking Platform (NSP), a global coalition of organisations fighting harmful shipbreaking practices, said in a 2023 statement that the Hong Kong convention would “only serve the interests of shipping companies” and lacks the same level of regulation of the Basel Convention, an international treaty that bans toxic waste disposal in developing countries.

When an old ship is ready for scrapping, it is automatically classed as hazardous waste under the Basel Convention.

The NSP says shipping companies often circumvent the restrictions of the Basel Convention by obscuring the country of the ship’s origin through intermediary ‘cash buyers’ and ‘flags of convenience’.

It says a cash buyer is a middleman company that buys a ship and then registers it with a PO Box shell company in a tax haven.

Broken carcasses of old ships lie beached in the mid next to a platform with a crane

Environmental activists say ocean-going vessels are riddled with toxins such as asbestos, heavy metals, oils, and carcinogens. Contaminated spills pollute ocean waters and soil, posing risks to scrapyard workers who often lack proper safety equipment. Source: SBS / Colin Cosier

Additionally, the law of the sea places a ship’s responsibility with the ship’s flag state, so cash buyers use flags from countries with lax maritime law enforcement standards.

In this way, a shipping company from a country such as Australia, Greece or China can sell a ship to a cash buyer who, in turn, sells the ship for scrapping in Bangladesh.

The beach breaking yards in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are popular destinations because they’re known to pay about five times more money for ships than highly regulated European yards.

Bareesh Chowdhury, policy and campaigns coordinator at the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), a member of the NGO coalition, says, “[The Hong Kong Convention] doesn’t address the problem of flags of convenience or the cash buyers.

“These gaps are what’s going to make this treaty ineffective as a result.”

A South Asian man with long curly hair and a beard is talking to another person, who's seen from behind

Bareesh Chowdhury of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) is among the critics of the Hong Kong Convention. Source: SBS / Louis Dai

He says the Basel Convention, to which Australia is a signatory, encourages industrialised countries to manage their own hazardous waste, whereas he says the Hong Kong Convention places the responsibility for toxic waste on the vessel’s flag state and the recycling state, not its country of origin.

“Instead of urging developed countries or urging ship owning countries to take responsibility for the waste that they are generating, it has passed that responsibility onto the importing state and the final disposal state, which are often countries that do not have the means for that kind of disposal,” he says.

Managing toxic waste

Chowdhury says ocean-going vessels are riddled with toxins such as asbestos, heavy metals, oils, and carcinogens. And it’s not just the scrapyard workers lacking proper safety equipment who are at risk of exposure.

Contaminated spills pollute ocean waters and soil, and items made of toxic materials find their way into ordinary homes, posing serious health risks to local communities.

“Bangladesh struggles with municipal waste management, let alone toxic waste that requires specialised facilities and care,” he said.

Bangladesh has a population of 140 million people and the largest ship-breaking industry in the world, but is without a single hazardous waste disposal facility.  

Zahirul says Bangladesh is trying to set up an appropriate hazardous waste facility with help from overseas aid but it’s a few years off.

The PHP ship-breaking yard Zahirul manages is part of one of the country’s largest conglomerates and claims to be the first green ship recycling facility in Bangladesh to be compliant with the Hong Kong Convention.

A South Asian man wearing a white shirt and a green safety helmet is talking to another person, who's only partially visible from behind

Mohammed Zahirul Islam is the manager of the PHP ship-breaking yard that claims to be the first green ship recycling facility in Bangladesh to be compliant with the Hong Kong Convention. Source: SBS / Louis Dai

He says they’ve implemented changes to minimise the impact on the environment and workers, including concrete flooring, cranes, personal safety equipment and waste containment.

He concedes that asbestos waste from ships can’t be disposed of in the country, so it’s entombed in concrete and kept on site.

He bristles against the idea that ships cannot be safely scrapped on a beach.

But he agrees that the onus on cleaning up the industry should not just be shouldered by Bangladesh.

“A ship is built in the developed world, and they make profit from it for 30 years,” he said.

“And we get it for only six months, and all the blame comes on us.”