Brownsville, Texas, shipbreaking yard receives accreditation

International Shipbreaking, part of U.K.-headquartered EMR Metal Recycling, says it has gained the European Union Ship Recycling Regulation (EU SRR) accreditation for its site in Brownsville, Texas, after investing $30 million in compliant infrastructure.

The Brownsville site is the first shipbreaking site in the United States to achieve this accreditation. It can now help EU-based ship owners as well as ships flying the flags of EU member states to recycle their ships at end of life.

EU SRR sets standards for environmental and health and safety compliance that are designed to go above and beyond U.S. regulatory requirements, EMR says in a news release about the site’s accreditation. The International Shipbreaking facility meets EU requirements to recycle ships on hard surfaces, avoiding pollutants such as chemicals from paints from contaminating the soil and water.

According to the European Commission, the EU SRR Ship Recycling Regulation is “the only dedicated legally binding framework regulating ship recycling” and restricts or prohibits the installation and use of hazardous materials on ships, such as asbestos or ozone-depleting substances. According to the legislation, it also reduces “disparities between operators in the Union, in OECD (Organization for Cooperation and Development) countries and in relevant third countries in terms of health and safety at the workplace and environmental standards and to direct ships flying the flag of a member state to ship recycling facilities that practice safe and environmentally sound methods of dismantling ships instead of directing them to substandard sites as is currently the practice. The competitiveness of safe and environmentally sound recycling and treatment of ships in ship recycling facilities located in a Member State would thereby also be increased.”

Chris Green, senior manager at International Shipbreaking Ltd. LLC, says, “We have just received and safely moored our first EU ship recycling project, the MT Wolverine. There is a big future in this industry and, over the past year, we have seen three times the number of inquiries from EU ship owners. This indicates the shipping industry is taking more responsibility for how their ships are recycled rather than using the South Asian shipbreaking beaches.”

Green says International Shipbreaking has been recycling ships and marine structures since 1995, having recycled more than 100 vessels in that time.

“We have a corporate culture of safety compliance and our very experienced staff completes due diligence, including safety and environmental assessments, before we even make a bid for a project,” he says. “This allows our team to accurately estimate the cost of hazardous material removal/disposal and the revenue we will receive for the recycled metals. These ships contain extensive hazardous materials that require containment and removal. To think this operation could be conducted any other way is reckless and irresponsible. We hang our hat on compliance and providing our customers with a recycling service that they can be proud of.”