Investment guidance for green recycling yards
A research project in Turkey has come up with a new rational decision making process for evaluating the optimum, environmental friendly locations for new or relocated ship recycling yards.
Increasing thought is going into the optimization of what happens to today’s gleaming newbuilds at the other end of their lifecycle.
A research project in Turkey, which has been an associate member of the European Union, has come up with a new rational decision making process for evaluating the optimum, environmental friendly locations for new or relocated ship recycling yards.
Collecting data, generating information and investigating the ship recycling industry is difficult. Investing in an environmentally sound recycling industry is complex due to a number of factors, such as considerations of safety on site and near the side as well as its environmental friendliness. These represent major investment projects, capitalizing hundreds of millions of dollars. The data on the decision process are vague or imprecise and many decision makers could be involved, including investors, consultants, governments, international organizations, and local people.
Cases have been investigated and a number of steps set out to guide the most appropriate investment decisions in a major research study, by Dr Burak Omer Saracoglu, an industrial engineer, marine engineer and naval architect.
One of the purposed steps involves asking whether the investment is a ‘location free’ or ‘location oriented’. The selection of ship recycling yard’s location is one of the key examples for ‘location oriented’ investments. Saracoglu underlined this issue because the performance measures such as profitability generally have a high degree of correlation with location.
Older established ship recycling companies may be forced to abandon their old yards or relocate in response to strategic warnings, waste shipment regulations, tensions with policymakers, market conditions, competitors, environmental rules, legislation and EC regulations.
The design, redesign and operation of ship recycling facilities in a safe and environmentally sound manner based on green initiatives is very important. Market conditions in the ship dismantling market indicate that changes of sites in a country or amongst countries for sound environmental reasons will be a necessity in the long term.
Consequently, Saracoglu believes that the factors or criteria for selection of sound environmental ship dismantling yard locations should be defined in a correct, detailed and very systematic manner.
In a Turkish project (TURKTERMAP), in which Saracoglu took part within a team of researchers and consultants, an easily executable, systematic and scientific method was developed. The methodology consists of three main stages and several steps and following sub-steps. In this Turkish research and consultancy study, the key factors were identified as:
· The Waste Acceptability Potential Of Region
· Community Attitude
· Environmental Status
· Utilities Services Status
· Competitiveness Status
· Regional Properties
· Infrastructure
· Transportation
· Energy Supply
These main factors are divided into several sub-factors and these were used, with the help of newly developed computer based decision making model. The project aimed to investigate potential new locations for ship recycling yards on the coast of the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Aegean. These were then ranked and selected for consideration as special investment zones of Green Ship Recycling.
For further information contact Dr. Burak Omer Saracoglu at Email: burakomersaracoglu@hotmail.com
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