Green Ships: Alternative Solutions

Mothballing

There have been many suggestions as an alternative solution to ship-breaking because of its adverse marine, human, and environmental effects. Mothballing is the process of indefinitely storing a ship including a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed, and thus partially or fully decommissioned. The negative aspects of mothballing are the expensive maintenance which is generally difficult to afford. Similar to ship-breaking, there are environmental concerns connected to this process which understandable makes it an unattractive option). paraphrased(Dodds)

Dry Docking

An additional alternative solution to ship-recycling is dry docking. Dry docking is closely related to mothballing, in terms of process and high cost of $800,000 per vessel, the decommissioned ships can be sunk to form artificial reefs, though it is costly due to cleaning and all environmental hazards to be removed prior to sinking. (Dodds). Expensive costs and environmental concerns are closely tied with the solution of dry-docking, make it a less likely and less desirable solution. Shipyards and harbors, where vessels are dry-docked for repairing and repainting, risk of polluting water bodies is particularly high and demands high quality waste management. (Gipperth)

Relocate Toxic Sediments

In an attempt to completely remove the contaminated sediments, that for many years since the banning of TBT are still present, the solution of removing the sediment altogether has been suggested. The preferred method is to relocate the toxic sediments. (Stichnothe) This solution would be extensively difficult to collect the entire contaminated sediment as well as searching or creating a site to relocate the material and how to disintegrate the sediment in a environmentally safe procedure.

Electrochemical Process

Aim of electrochemical process is to decompose TBT. (Stichnothe)

Scraping

Washing, scraping, and repainting of boat hulls may also cause harmful health effects on shipyard workers. (Gipperth)

Alternate Paints

Could use other paints, however, most still contain a biocide which makes it ineffective. Also, the cost of using other compounds or metals is considerably more expensive. (Gipperth) Higher cost of using alternative paints is not only due to high cost of paint itself but less effective antifouling paint requires more frequent repainting and hull cleanings and may increase fuel consumption, followed by loss in trading revenue while ships are dry-docked. (Gipperth)