Ship Recycling sector has been serving in scope of  a natural technological process reducing the shipping risks in terms of withdrawal of  expired ships from navigation and release the new ships  in tonnage built with the latest technology and  environmentally-conscious.

As long as the ships are built in the shipyards, ship dismantling places should be made available for the expired ships.

Over 50.000 ships are currently available in circulation in our seas in the world trade. The average   age of these ships is above 20.  It is obviously known that the ships over the age of 15 has rather high risk to cause the accidents resulting in environmental disasters.

By virtue of new standards  applied and to be applied along with the years, the ships which are built with old technology,  non-environmentally friendly and inefficient  have been started to withdrawal thus it leads to great steel waste to be recycled.

However, this big quantity of steel should be recycled complying with the requirements of the environmental and human health otherwise the tragic results for the environment and human health will be inevitable.

The main objective in the sector is to recycle the  scrap steel, ship equipment, metals and other waste without any harmful effects on the environment and human health.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF SHIP RECYCLING

Ship Recycling is the inverse of shipbuilding process. During the dismantling of scrap ships, metal materials are sent to Rolling mills or evaluated directly.  Ship Recycling is an important production in terms of converting the scrap into precious product and recycling of natural resources.  On the other hand,  ship recycling is  deemed as one of the industries that cares and takes all measures to protect the environment. By the purpose of using the natural resources efficiently and productive, the scrap ships are dismantled and a variety of products is obtained from various scrap pieces after a number of technical processes. 

Ship recycling that has been playing an important role in the protection of ecological balance is called as “green industry” adopted by IMO World Maritime Organization.   

It is obviously known that ship recycling provides more savings in energy and costs and leads to lower pollution in environment when compared to iron mining including melting and milling processes.

THE IMPACTS OF SHIP RECYCLING ON NATURE

The alternative production method of steel that has been produced from the scrap ships is to produce from the iron ore.  First, the cast iron has been obtained from the high temperature kilns then converted into steel through the converter process. Three raw materials are used essentially in the production of cast iron in high temperature kilns, e.g. Iron ore, Coke and Limestone. Each of these three raw materials are obtained from the ground quarries leading to surface damage of large areas in the ground.

Coke is obtained from transformation process of anthracite coal. Coke is turned to partially carbon dioxide and partially to iron carbide however this iron carbide is also turned to carbon dioxide and released in atmosphere during the steel production process.

Steel production from the scrap iron is deemed as an environmentally friendly technology since  such harmful processes towards both environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emission are removed completely. Recycling 1 tons of steel ensures saving of  1,100 kilograms of iron ore, 630 kilograms of coal and 55 kilograms of limestone. In addition, from the perspective of energy consumption, it is seen that the energy to be consumed to convert 1 tons of Hematite ore into cast iron is 7400 MJ and the energy to be consumed to melt 1 tons of steel scrap is 1350 MJ. As a result of this process, 2200 kg of CO2 is being released from the high temperature kilns to atmosphere. The release amount of Co2 during the melting process of 1 ton of scrap steel is 280 kg. As long as use of natural resources increases to obtain the electrical energy, this amount will decrease accordingly.

The advantages of recycled scrap steel;

• Energy Savings by 74%,
• Raw material protection by 90%
• Less Water Consumption by 40%
• Less  Waste water pollution by 76%
• Less Air pollution by 86%
• Less Mine waste by 97%.

The detailed numbers of recycling mine, scrap, equipment as well as evaluation of wastes to prevent the consumption of natural resources are explained in the Annual Tables of Waste Data.