Shiprepair & Maintenance: eNews March 2017 
Five of the companies on the EU Commissions ‘approved’ list of ship recycling yards have signed an agreement to establish a green European Recyclers Group (ESR). The five are companies are Grand Port Maritime de Bordeaux (France), NV Galloo Recycling (Belgiun), Smedegaarden A/S (Denmark), Scheepsrecycling Nederland B.V. (Netherlands) and DDR Vessels XXI, S.L (Spain). They will operate under the flag of the international Ship Recycling Association (ISRA), which was originally set-up in October 2007 to promote environmentally sound and safe ship recycling.
Peter Wyntin, the new ESR Chairman, said “Our first target is to create awareness of the recycling capacity in Europe which today is over a million tonnes. We have to ensure that our member yards are on the top of the shipowners’ list for dismantling their Ships”.
In December 2016 the European Commission (EC) issued its first version of the European List of ship recycling facilities. The list included 18 shipyards with a total capacity of 1.1 million lightweight tonnes. All of the facilities are within the European Union. Additionally, they also received applications from a number of ship recycling yards located in non-EU countries. These applications are being reviewed and site inspections will be conducted before the EC decides in 2017 if they can be included in the list. These yards will need to prove that they are able to contain pollutants, ensure safe working conditions and the environmentally sound management of all wastes from the recycling activities. The ship breaking/demolition beaching yards in South Asia are not expected to make it on the EU list.
