Key takeaways
Global standard for safer ship recycling introduced
HKC sets new rules for environmental and worker safety in dismantling vessels.
Inventory of hazardous materials now mandatory
Ships must maintain verified records to ensure compliance and transparency.
Regulatory overlap may cause industry challenges
Potential conflicts with Basel Convention require careful navigation by shipowners.
Authors
16 years after it was adopted in 2009, the Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (HKC) has finally entered into force today, 26 June 2025.
With the world’s tonnage aging, and tens of thousands of vessels due to be recycled within the next decade, the HKC aims to be the new international standard for safe ship recycling, creating requirements for ships, and ship recycling facilities alike. These include new worker protections, and the requirement that ships keep on board an Inventory of Hazardous Material.
Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how the HKC will fare as a conflicting regulation with the existing Basel Convention on Hazardous Waste. Recyclers have expressed concerns that the HKC will act as a barrier restricting HKC-compliant facilities into recycling only HKC-compliant vessels and vice versa.
By extension, this would mean that a country ratifying the HKC effectively pigeonholes itself and the recyclers operating within it into committing to recycle only HKC-compliant vessels. Thankfully, in practice the HKC allows non-Party ships that meet the Convention’s requirements to be dismantled at HKC-compliant recycling facilities.
Despite these issues, the HKC is a significant step forward in the goal for sustainable recycling. While challenges are expected to remain, the potential benefits for the environment, workers and the industry at large are significant.
The HKC should lead to safer and more ethical ship recycling acting as a ‘one stop shop’ for responsible ship recycling, enabling the world’s fleet to operate on a level playing field.
That said, contradictions – and, by extension, some confusion and uncertainty - within the global regulatory framework governing ship recycling is expected to continue. As usual, shipowners, operators (and brokers) are encouraged to take a careful approach when navigating the regulatory framework, once the decision is made to recycle a vessel.