Ship Breakers of Bangladesh

Ship breaking beaches of Bangladesh cause a environmental nightmare, lowers quality of life for locals, and has unworkable conditions.

In a city of Chittagong on
the bay of Bengal in Bangladesh.

This issue is on a global
level due to the high amount
of toxic waste put out. Approx 97% of a boat can be recycled, but the remaining 3% is oil, and other harmful toxins. These will be left on the beaches. It's a global issue because we all share the same oceans in one way or another, and most of the ships that are recycled here are from other areas. It would cost to much to have these recycling beaches in North America due to strict protocols and wages. Locally it harms the workers, due to the toxic environment and low pay. Many workers die in a explosion every year due to the blow touches and fumes within the ships. Child labour is also an issue.

They send their old ships there because its economically the best option. The owners of the recycling plants will buy the ship (by weight and metal cost), while giving little to the workers. This will give old core countries the ability to get rid of the ships while making money. They also don't need to deal with the destruction and cost for workers. Using a country with little labour laws creates an ability to get work done in a quick cheap manner, at the cost of safety for workers and enviroment.

This is a win win situation for most of the steak holders. The owner of the ships are able to get rid of their ship without having to deal with the costs of disposal. They actually gain money by selling the ship for scrap metal. The buyer than is able to transform the ship into metal rods at a low cost. Due to paying little to workers they are able to pocket much of the scrap metal turn around money. Overall providing money to the major steak holders in the situation.

The enviroment gets the worst out of this deal. The idea of recycling the metal would be seen as a positive to many by reusing this metal, but through the process they use the ship will do more harm to the enviroment. The workers can only recycle about 97% of the ships parts. What remains is hazardous waste, asbestos, arsenic and mercury. These are just left on the beaches and in the water. This caused the beaches and water to turn black, harming the enviroment and locals health.

Many factors come into play with who makes the decisions but the country needs this to happen. Bangladesh has no iron ore mines. They get approx 80% of their national steel thorough these beaches. With factors like this in a extremely poor country trying to industrialize the decisions will be in the hands of the government and other countries.

This operation has red flags all over it for society. The child labour, environmental damage, low wages and no workplace safety causes negative effects on the community of workers. This being said, they country cannot have it any other way. In Bangladesh child labour is inevitable, if the children aren't working here, they'd just be doing another job. The government cannot afford to feed and house their people, leading to all needing to work. No enforcement of laws for enviroment and workplace safety allows this to happen. Many of the workers are unhappy, but with no union stuck in this position. They paint pictures of where they rather be on the trucks used here, to remind them of happy days.

Chittagong, viewed on bottom right of map is the location of the beaches.