What happened tp decommissioned cruise ships?

[Momto3girlsintheCarolinas]

With the pandemic forcing so manty lines to sell off ships. what happens to the ones they take out of service? 

 

 

[Essiesmom]

Well, if you have been following the news here, and on the cruise line boards, some were scrapped, some sold to other lines, some are still in limbo...EM

[Flatbush Flyer]

 

[navybankerteacher]

The Wall Street Journal ran a recent story on the increasing number of cruise ships sent to recycling yards  - 10 in 2020, after about 5 per year in preceding years.  I imagine the number will go up sharply this year.

 

The steel is the most readily recyclable part - but of course there is a lot of other material - crockery , copper wiring , etc.

[whogo]

They are hazardous waste according to a March 2, 2021 article from the BBC.

 

"Two UK cruise ships have been scrapped on an Indian beach despite assurances they would continue to be operated.

"Ships at the end of their lives are considered hazardous waste and it is illegal to send them to developing countries from the UK." https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56196069

[navybankerteacher]

1 hour ago, whogo said:

They are hazardous waste according to a March 2, 2021 article from the BBC.

 

"Two UK cruise ships have been scrapped on an Indian beach despite assurances they would continue to be operated.

"Ships at the end of their lives are considered hazardous waste and it is illegal to send them to developing countries from the UK." https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56196069

And, I am reasonably confident that cruise lines have figured ways around such strictures - perhaps by selling them to third parties operating in less restrictive environments.   It is too bad - but I do not think those breakers yards in Turkey, possibly in India and, I am reasonably certain, one or more African nations will be short of raw material in the coming years .

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, whogo said:

They are hazardous waste according to a March 2, 2021 article from the BBC.

 

"Two UK cruise ships have been scrapped on an Indian beach despite assurances they would continue to be operated.

"Ships at the end of their lives are considered hazardous waste and it is illegal to send them to developing countries from the UK." https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56196069

Too bad about the Marco Polo

We sailed her when she was the  Puskin & again when she was part of Orient lines

[navybankerteacher]

12 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Too bad about the Marco Polo

We sailed her when she was the  Puskin & again when she was part of Orient lines

I had a great cruise on Marco Polo in the Fall of 1996 -  Istanbul to Athens with stops through the Aegean -  perhaps the rarest was Kanakkale for the ruins of Troy.  A somewhat barebones cruise by today’s absurdly over the top mega-ship standards, but a good size and an excellent passenger mix.

[cruisemom42]

Lots of youtube videos showing ships at the major "breakers" yards in Turkey (Aliaga) and India (Alang) if you look for them.

 

Here's one showing several of the 2020 batch that are in various stages of being dismantled:

 

 

[navybankerteacher]

7 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

Lots of youtube videos showing ships at the major "breakers" yards in Turkey (Aliaga) and India (Alang) if you look for them.

 

Here's one showing several of the 2020 batch that are in various stages of being dismantled:

 

 

Does anyone feel any (very indirect) responsibility for the notion that their support of the cruise industry leads to this sort of pollution?

[Heidi13]

19 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

Does anyone feel any (very indirect) responsibility for the notion that their support of the cruise industry leads to this sort of pollution?

 

Not in the slightest. It's way better than the alternative of scuttling them in the ocean. Compared to the industry as a whole, cruise ships are a tiny component.

[navybankerteacher]

47 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Not in the slightest. It's way better than the alternative of scuttling them in the ocean. Compared to the industry as a whole, cruise ships are a tiny component.

Agreed - I was interested in shaking some of the trees to see if any of the "socially responsible" folk fall out.

 

Although I, personally, feel somewhat better emotionally to know that at least two of my old ships are now resting on the bottom as artificial reefs sheltering marine life -- as opposed to being turned into manhole covers (Have you ever noticed that so many of them seem to be made in India?)

Edited March 15, 2021 by navybankerteacher

[chengkp75]

8 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

And, I am reasonably confident that cruise lines have figured ways around such strictures - perhaps by selling them to third parties operating in less restrictive environments.   It is too bad - but I do not think those breakers yards in Turkey, possibly in India and, I am reasonably certain, one or more African nations will be short of raw material in the coming years .

The way the cruise lines get "around" the strictures is to sell the ship to a shell company that is not in the EU.  Turkey's ship breakers now meet the EU regulations for environmental ship breaking.  Alang, however, does not.

 

The ships do not pose that great a pollution concern, as the only real hazardous material onboard is asbestos.  Ships are supposed to be built, and supplied with asbestos free materials, but there is no world wide standard on what is "asbestos free", and not much regulation of the vendors.  So, it is not really the cruise lines' fault that the ships have some hazardous material onboard, and in many cases, they may not actually have any onboard, but it is impossible to document that they don't.

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

The way the cruise lines get "around" the strictures is to sell the ship to a shell company that is not in the EU.  Turkey's ship breakers now meet the EU regulations for environmental ship breaking.  Alang, however, does not.

 

The ships do not pose that great a pollution concern, as the only real hazardous material onboard is asbestos.  Ships are supposed to be built, and supplied with asbestos free materials, but there is no world wide standard on what is "asbestos free", and not much regulation of the vendors.  So, it is not really the cruise lines' fault that the ships have some hazardous material onboard, and in many cases, they may not actually have any onboard, but it is impossible to document that they don't.

 

When I ran a shipyard for a few years, I was continuously surprised where we found asbestos. It got to the point where we literally had to test everything. None of our ships were even built in China, all Canadian built.

 

Still recall when cropping and renewing deck plates above the cafeteria, once the insulation was removed we found beads of a black mastic troweled with a notched trowel. In my wildest dreams, I didn't expect it to contain asbestos, but since the ship was built in the mid 60's we tested it anyway. Sure enough - asbestos containing.

[ldubs]

1 hour ago, navybankerteacher said:

Agreed - I was interested in shaking some of the trees to see if any of the "socially responsible" folk fall out.

 

 

Please don't tempt fate -- I like this thread.   

 

By the way, do you know why manhole covers are round?  

[mom says]

Round covers can't fall into the hole.

[ldubs]

21 minutes ago, mom says said:

Round covers can't fall into the hole.

 

You win bragging rights!   

[ilikeanswers]

13 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

Does anyone feel any (very indirect) responsibility for the notion that their support of the cruise industry leads to this sort of pollution?

 

I wouldn't say I feel responsible but there is always room for improvement and there is nothing wrong with contemplating such improvements. I for one wouldn't mind if cruise lines researched a way to decrease plastic or at least use recyclable plastic in their design and it would be nice if there was more advocacy for those breakyard workers. It seems nonsensical that people are risking their lives to dismantle ships.

[navybankerteacher]

10 minutes ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

I wouldn't say I feel responsible but there is always room for improvement and there is nothing wrong with contemplating such improvements. I for one wouldn't mind if cruise lines researched a way to decrease plastic or at least use recyclable plastic in their design and it would be nice if there was more advocacy for those breakyard workers. It seems nonsensical that people are risking their lives to dismantle ships.

And somehow it seems sad to see what could be beautiful beaches so devastated with those shrinking hulks.

[ilikeanswers]

14 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

And somehow it seems sad to see what could be beautiful beaches so devastated with those shrinking hulks.

 

The doco I saw was in Pakistan in somewhere that was a mud flat than a beach and without before and after pictures I have no idea what the natural environment consisted off but I wouldn't be surprised if they were using beach environments as breakyards. There are some gorgeous coastlines along Pakistan and around India but they don't exactly have thriving beach tourism beyond Goa and with the fishing industry in decline breakyards would be more lucrative. If it is anything like how they run coal ports I doubt the locals protests would have been considered. Getting back to the pollution thing I do remember them burning huge piles of stuff that they said was not marketable that would be another thing that would be good to stop. I can't imagine that is good for the environment or human health😳.

Edited March 15, 2021 by ilikeanswers

[DirtyDawg]

13 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

Agreed - I was interested in shaking some of the trees to see if any of the "socially responsible" folk fall out.

 

Although I, personally, feel somewhat better emotionally to know that at least two of my old ships are now resting on the bottom as artificial reefs sheltering marine life -- as opposed to being turned into manhole covers (Have you ever noticed that so many of them seem to be made in India?)

 

11 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

Please don't tempt fate -- I like this thread.   

 

By the way, do you know why manhole covers are round?  

 

10 hours ago, mom says said:

Round covers can't fall into the hole.

 

My knowledge of manhole covers has just increased 1,000 fold! 

 

Now, if I could just figure out how Cadbury gets the caramel into its Caramilk chocolate bar my life will be complete! 🙂

 

Edited March 15, 2021 by DirtyDawg

[navybankerteacher]

21 minutes ago, DirtyDawg said:

 

 

 

My knowledge of manhole covers has just increased 1,000 fold! 

 

...

 

It is said that knowledge alone is pointless - unless it is put to some good use.  Just how do you visualize doing that with regard to manhole covers?

[ilikeanswers]

24 minutes ago, DirtyDawg said:

Now, if I could just figure out how Cadbury gets the caramel into its Caramilk chocolate bar my life will be complete! 🙂

 

 

The secret of the Caramilk™ bar

[ilikeanswers]

3 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

It is said that knowledge alone is pointless - unless it is put to some good use.  Just how do you visualize doing that with regard to manhole covers?

 

Just because it is not useful today doesn't mean it won't be useful tomorrow😉

[mom says]

2 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

It is said that knowledge alone is pointless - unless it is put to some good use.  Just how do you visualize doing that with regard to manhole covers?

Win at trivia games?

 

I remember wondering what possible use I would find for the things I was forced to learn geometry class. And yet....

Edited March 15, 2021 by mom says