Prior to the Hong Kong International Convention (HKC) for safe ship recycling being enforced in June 2025, BIMCO established the Ship Recycling Alliance. Dr. Nikos Mikelis, an industry veteran, is the chair of the new organization, which seeks to assist regulators, foster appropriate recycling methods, and link stakeholders. Global cash purchasers like GMS and Wirana, as well as industry associations from Bangladesh, Turkey, Pakistan, and India, are founding members. The alliance aims to promote safe, ecologically friendly recycling standards and is open to a range of stakeholders, including ship owners, cash purchasers, financial institutions, and ship recyclers.
According to BIMCO, in order to obtain legal clarification on how the two conventions interact, the Recycling Alliance will communicate with the IMO, the Secretariat of the Basel Convention (BC) in the EU, and individual nation representatives whose states are members of each organization. According to BIMCO, the procedure will involve evaluating, taking into account, and reacting to any suggestions for upcoming changes to the HKC as well as offering assistance in putting the BC regulations for the handling of ship recycling garbage into effect and enforcing them.
The sufficiency of the HKC and the standardization of HKC-certified facilities have been topics of discussion in the shipping sector. Some have called for harmonization between the regional regulations of the EU Ship Recycling Regulation (EU-SRR) and the global regulations of the HKC, which is agreed upon by the International Maritime Organization. As many as 32 recycling yards in non-OECD nations, including 27 in India and one in Bahrain, have applied for EU approval and some have undergone preliminary audits for compliance under the EU-SRR, joining eight yards in Turkey and one in the US, according to Singapore-based ship recycling consultancy Sea Sentinels.
