Green ship recycling underway on the Mersey
The first Ministry of Defence warship to be recycled in the UK for more than a decade has been towed into the Port of Liverpool.
Falklands War veteran HMS Intrepid arrived in the Mersey from Portsmouth last month and is expected to be the first of a string of vessels to be recycled by Leavesley International under strict health, safety and environmental controls.
The company will employ a skilled onsite workforce of 50 on the former Royal Navy assault ship, after being chosen as the MoDs preferred bidder for the task, which will be carried out under the recently published DEFRA Guidance Notes on Ship Recycling and the Green Passport scheme adopted by the International Maritime Organisation.
Having secured both Liverpool City Council planning permission and the Environment Agency’s Waste Management Licence, Leavesley and project partners Technical Demolition Services of Birkenhead are expected to take some five months to complete the task at Liverpool’s Canada Graving Dock.
The Liverpool operation is an initiative prompted by the growing demand for the establishment of a high quality facility in the UK as an alternative to the disposal of decommissioned warships in the Far East.
‘There is no shortage of ships out there waiting to be responsibly dealt with, said Leavsley’s project leader Stuart Halsey. ‘Recycling is an inherently sustainable activity where over 95% of the vessel’s material can be reprocessed. We see Leavesley International being a permanent fixture in the Port of Liverpool.’
The Mersey, he added, was chosen as the right location in which to undertake the work because the Port of Liverpool offered everything. ‘The dry dock is the right size for such projects. The port has major metal processing operations, it is centrally located and easily accessible by motorway and it has an existing skills base.’
