Not Related to Honduras

Thankfully, this post has nothing to do with Honduras.  This is a post about shipbreaking.  Shipbreaking is the process of "recycling" or tearing apart of giant ships that have reached the end of their useful lives.  I stumbled across this topic when I was reading about the largest ship to have ever plowed the seas.

The Seawise Giant measured over 1,500 ft. and carried oil all over the world (just not through the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal, or even the English Channel) for 30 years.  Interestingly enough, she was sunk by the Iraqis during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s but then refloated.  But then, in January of this year, the old giant was renamed, reflagged under Sierra Leone, and beached in Alang, India, to be broken for scrap metal.

But what happened then?  I looked up Alang and started reading more about shipbreaking.  I still know very little, but what I do know is sobering.  Every year, giant ships, covered with lead paint and filled with oil and asbestos are decommissioned and must be disposed of.  Taking them apart is an expensive, tedious job.  Unless you ship them to Bangladesh or India, of course.

The picture above is about 10% of the shipbreaking in Chittagong in Bangladesh.  You can view the Google Maps images for yourself here and here.  

Breaking a ship is accomplished with a minimum of technology.  Workers literally cut the ship apart piece by piece with blowtorches.  The giant pieces of metal are carried on workers shoulders up the beach.  I'm not sure why they can't pull the metal with vehicles.  Perhaps it is just cheaper with people.

This site gives a good high level overview of how the process works and you can see the 60 Minutes photo gallery here, right above some other great American reporting.

This makes me think.  This practice contaminates the ocean, ruins drinking water, kills and injures workers, and pays next to nothing, but people still do it.  As terrible as this job is, the workers prefer it to the next best alternative.  That is powerful.