Incorporating 'design for ship recycling' in modern marine design

One of the key areas, which potentially has one of the biggest impacts within a ships life, is currently being overlooked; the end of life and recycling phase of a vessel. Within the ship recycling industry many problems which have a detrimental impact on the environment as well as occupational health and safety have been identified as being a direct consequence of marine design decisions which range from hazardous materials utilised onboard to the manner in which the vessel has been constructed. With the demand for world shipping ever growing and ships heading to ship recycling location where health, safety and environmental standards are not always guaranteed it is vital that marine design takes responsibility for the full life cycle of a design by incorporating ‘design for ship recycling’ In this paper, through research of the ship recycling industry and referring to previous ship recycling process analysis carried out by the authors, the various hazardous materials and processes involved in ship recycling will be documented, a link established to the marine design cycle and concepts for incorporating ‘design for ship recycling’ in modern marine design introduced