Kevin Rowan

Jul 3 2006 By Kevin Rowan, The Journal

The Department for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (Defra) has recently organised a consultation exercise on the potential benefits and considerations relating to ship recycling.

The debacle of the ex-US Naval "ghost ships" arriving in Hartlepool for stripping has been one of a series of major examples of how managing and recycling these types of vessel should not be handled.

Earlier this year the French Naval vessel Le Clemenceau was finally ordered back to France after visiting Spain, Turkey and India to be stripped down and broken up.

And it's not just ships, the Brent Spar oil derrick highlighted the environmental concerns around not cleaning up properly the consequences of our actions in industry.

These environmental management concerns are critical, of course, we need to do much more to enforce the principle of polluter pays.

Government and business should take the primary responsibility for taking proper care of the waste product created by their actions.

We hear all the time how we are in a global economy. But this, apparently, does not stop us from dragging ships at the end of their life-span to beaches in India where they are stripped down and dismantled without any regard to the health and safety of the workers or the environmental consequences.

Desperate poverty is apparently a great incentive for ignoring one's health, but it is not an acceptable excuse for exploitation.

Economic opportunity is another reason for developing a much better way to manage this issue, and the Defra consultation is a welcome opportunity to develop some thinking along these lines.

There are very few, if any, locations in the European Union with completely suitable facilities for ship recycling.

By investing in this area we could uncover a potential long-term, sustainable employment base that would utilise skills and facilities in the region, as well as taking a much more responsible approach to dealing with the problem of waste.

Ship recycling and dismantling will not provide the numbers of jobs that shipbuilding traditionally has but the right kind of investment in recycling that would spin-off from developing a centre of excellence in this area is not to be sniffed at.

Surely we should seriously consider investing in this potential.

Kevin Rowan is regional secretary of the Northern TUC