NGO sounds alarm urging South Korea to halt toxic ship dumping

Despite repeated calls for accountability concerning a number of accidents reported on board South Korean vessels sent for breaking in South Asia, the country’s shipowners continue offloading their end-of-life assets to cash buyers and circumventing international environmental safety stipulations.

According to the Belgian organization NGO Shipbreaking Platform, since 2020, 94 ships owned by South Korean companies were dismantled on the beaches of Bangladesh and India, two countries that have been criticized for the ‘hazardous’ conditions of their shipbreaking (and repair) yards that have, thus far, put numerous workers’ lives at risk, on top of causing “irreversible” environmental damage.

Per the organization’s 2024 data, South Korea was among the year’s ‘worst dumpers’, together with China, which topped the list, Russia, Switzerland, and the Philippines, among others. The most recent evaluation done by the NGO, however, shows that 13 units were exported from the East Asian nation alone to India and Bangladesh for breaking.

In addition to this, the organization has spotlighted that in the last two years alone, three serious accidents, which led to deaths and injuries, were reported on a South Korean ship. Regardless of that, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform argued that the nation’s shipping players—including majors such as Sinokor, SK Shipping and H-Line—continue to ‘fuel’ ecological as well as human rights violations.

In fact, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform said that it recently alerted South Korean authorities to the illegal export of the vessel HL Pyeongtaek, for instance, which had been sold to cash buyer Best Oasis by H-Line and beached in Alang, India. H-Line has reportedly scrapped five units in the last five years and is about to retire the HL Ras Laffan.

The organization has noted that international law here is clear-cut, stating that all transboundary movements of hazardous waste, including end-of-life ships, must obtain a prior informed consent (PIC) certificate from importing countries in line with the Basel Convention.

What is more, as explained, the export of end-of-life assets from OECD to non-OECD nations is forbidden, making violations of these laws a ‘serious’ environmental offense, as evidenced by recent cases in the Netherlands and Norway where shipowners faced hefty fines and prison time for exporting ships for scrapping in India and Pakistan, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform underscored.

In spite of the status quo in South Korea, the Belgium-based organization nonetheless sees ‘viable’ ways out.

The South Korean Act on Promotion of Transition to a Circular Economy and Society, for example, recognizes waste metal as a resource that can fortify the endeavor to transition toward a circular economic model. The act intends to facilitate an ‘efficient’ use of resources throughout the entire lifecycle of products to minimize waste generation and support more sustainable practices.

Furthermore, as South Korea is a large shipbuilding nation with a huge manufacturing sector, the NGO believes that shipping companies and the steel sector should be incentivized to find a synergy on how high-quality vessel scrap steel can contribute to the decarbonization efforts of the domestic steel industry.

As for shipbuilding, the organization argued that this sector needs to be ‘encouraged’ to inspect every design with ‘optimized’ material recovery in mind.

“We invite South Korean civil society and media to collaborate with us in raising awareness of this issue and to ensure that ship recycling practices align with the country’s circular economy policies and sustainability commitments,” Benedetta Mantoan, Policy Officer at NGO Shipbreaking Platform, concluded.