78 By working with suppliers, operators can increase the level of circularity they achieve. Viking Line explains: “Since 2014, nearly 93,000kg of wall-to-wall carpeting from the company’s vessels have been returned to the carpet supplier Tarkett. The French manufacturer has launched a pioneering project to recycle its corporate customers’ used carpeting, which is collected at the end of its economic life and processed into material for new carpets. As a result of this recycling and new production methods, progress is being made to complete the life cycle of this product in operations.” Ship recycling Disposing of ships that are being retired from fleets is a hugely waste-intensive undertaking. Regulation (EU) 1257/2013 (Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships) provides a framework for companies to follow when undertaking recycling of their vessels, building on the (not yet ratified) original Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships as proposed by IMO. In August 2020, Carnival Corporation announced agreements with maritime reclamation and recycling specialists Ege Celik and Simsekler “to responsibly dismantle and recycle two retired ships scheduled to leave our fleet. Ships will be stripped of machinery, electronic equipment, glass, wood, and other materials that can be directly upcycled for reuse in new ships, used in ship repair or repurposed for other applications. Steel and metal scraps will be salvaged and recycled for direct use or be sent to the mill for producing other products and goods.” Royal Caribbean Group says: “Our [shipbreaking] policy requires that the yard conducting the process follows the European Union regulations and the IMO Hong Kong Convention for the safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships.” Among those ferry companies that explicitly state their ship recycling policies on their websites, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines says it is committed to “utilising recycling yards certified by ClassNK as compliant with the Ship Recycling Convention” while Tallink Group says it complies with the requirements of the Regulation (EU) 1257/2013 (Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships) on Ship Recycling.” Stena AB has a particular focus on the environmental performance of the locations chosen for recycling its ships: “For Stena’s shipping activities, the environmental conditions at yards where vessels are recycled are important. To handle these issues in maritime activities, Stena has a Group Ship Recycling Policy.” CURRENT REPORTED ACT I V I T Y
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzQ1NTk=