Bangladesh braces for economic boost from recycling old, polluting ships

On the southwest coast of Bangladesh, workers armed with gas torches, laser cutters and winches break apart the carcasses of the giant, old ships that are grounded on their sandy beach.

Thirty ship-breaking yards and thousands of scrap workshops are dotted along 15 km of the coastline of Sitakunda, recycling about 38% of the world’s dead ships and supplying steel scraps for Bangladesh’s thriving manufacturing industry.

“Cutting ships is one of the riskiest jobs on earth,” said Jamal Uddin, 40, who works as a senior cutter in his local yard.

Over the last two decades, Uddin has seen many of his fellow workers in nearby yards suffer major burns and break limbs while dismantling steel vessels that are sent to Bangladesh from rich, ship-owning nations.

With many old ships now nearing their end of life, the industry is bracing for a big, new economic shot in the arm.

In the coming decade, about 15,000 ships – or one in eight of the entire global fleet – will come in for recycling: twice the amount of the past decade, according to a new report by the NGO Climate Group and consulting firm PWC.

These older ships are heavy emitters, spewing out pollutants and planet-heating emissions, which have hastened the industry’s efforts to retire them, said Anand Hiremath, chief…

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