The containership, ER Los Angeles, has become the first vessel in the world to meet the new requirements on environment-friendly ship recycling as laid out by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
In a pilot project, Hamburg charter shipping company, ER Schiffahrt, supported by Germanischer Lloyd, compiled an inventory of hazardous materials according to the IMO convention, a joint company statement said.
The list includes all potentially environmentally harmful materials used in shipbuilding or which are part of the equipment. The compilation and localisation of this data is a core topic of the IMO convention. In the course of this year, the IMO will issue the draft of a binding regulation on safe and environment-friendly ship recycling.
Knud Stubkjaer, chief executive officer of ER Schiffahrt, said: "During the pilot project, we gained valuable experience, and feel better prepared for the introduction of the new IMO convention. All parties involved agreed on developing a user-friendly process for recording all harmful substances."
Henning Gramann, Germanischer Lloyd Industrial Services (GLIS) project manager of "strategic research ship recycling", said ER Schiffahrt exceeds IMO requirements for existing ships by also recording harmful substances which have to be documented only for newbuildings."
For vessels like the 5,700-TEU ER Los Angeles, which is in service already, it will be required to record all toxic substances such as asbestos, PCB, ozone-reducing gases as well as tributyltin (TBT) containing anti-foulings. The data is collected by a hazardous substance expert, who evaluates the vessel and its equipment regarding hazardous material, and also takes and analysis specimens. Classification societies such as Germanischer Lloyd have to check and certify this documentation.
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