While ships are locomotives, buildings are usually fixed to one location; however, the two have as many features in common as at variance. The end-of-life disassembly processes of ships is usually labour intensive courtesy of its large size (Hedlund-Åström et al., 2005), a common feature of building structures too. In the disassembly process of ships
75
there may be an encounter with hazardous contents that mandated detailed labelling (Hedlund-Åström et al., 2005), a requirement that may be necessary in the case of buildings with hazardous contents (Sassi, 2008). According to the International Maritime Organisation - IMO, ships should carry and maintain installed materials property labels throughout their lifecycle (Gramann H., Krapp R., & Bertram V., 2009), however, there is no evidence to suggest that this requirement is prescribed anywhere for buildings.
Innovative use of new materials like polymer composite materials is another trend in the ship design (Hedlund-Åström et al., 2005), which is a pattern that can equally be observed in the construction sector. The end- of-life management of such composite materials is usually associated with challenges, such as expensive recycling costs, and lack of market for the recycled products (Hedlund-Åström et al., 2005). It is worthy to note that efforts are under way to tackle these challenges through researches. One of such researches for instance, was about the utilisation of blast grits from shipyards in the production of bitumen (Buruiana, Bordei, Sandu, Chirculescu, & Sandu, 2013).
The researches into more effective ways to handle difficult materials may probably be motivated by legislations such as the Extended Producer Responsibility, the EU Directive for End of Life Vehicle (ELV), Directive for the Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), and Landfill Regulations (Hedlund-Åström et al., 2005). Identification of the material property of each component is very essential in the process of ship dismantling, irrespective of the method applied for its end-of-life treatment. All materials should be labelled appropriately using the conventional waste information model, like the International Dismantling Information System (IDIS), developed by a group of vehicle producers. The segregation should be repeated in each of the four stages of dismantling, cutting, shredding, and grinding (Hedlund-Åström et al., 2005). On the other
76
hand, the construction sector equivalent of the IDIS is yet to be promulgated.
The Technical Committee ISO/TC 8, “Ships and marine technology” of the International Standards Organisation-ISO developed the ISO 30004 to address the industry wide quest for recycling standards. This is further mandated by the undesirable practices in the sector that threaten human health and safety, and the environment. A flexible model that provides the minimum benchmark with flexibility for appropriate response to the varying factors within or external to an establishment, is therefore a welcome development (BS30004:2012, 2012).
According to the BS30004:2012 (2012), ship recycling is one of such activities that requires constant revision and updates, whereby, the “Plan-
Do-Check-Act” (PDCA) management system, sometimes referred to as Demming Wheel or Shewhart Cycle (Lee, 2002), is recommended as a
generic model. In this approach, the top management control activities through strategic planning, implementation, monitoring, and review. At the planning stage, the recycling targets and methods for achieving the targets are established. The implementation phase will require management structures with clearly defined roles, availability of resources including personnel, processes, documentation, and control. The check stage will involve monitoring, evaluation, audit, and adjustments. And finally in the action phase, there will be the need for revision and updating of the entire management approach (BS30004:2012, 2012).
77
Figure 15: Generic Ship Recycling Management Model adopted from ISO 30004 (BS30004:2012, 2012)
The commitment and leadership of the high-level management of an organisation is identified as the key to successful ship recycling program. The management of an organisation should plan, execute, control, and review a ship recycling policy that entails the level of safety, health, welfare, and environmental targets to be achieved. This will involve defining the scope of the ship recycling management system for effective control of processes and procedures. All the safety and welfare, and environmental aspects, among other activities within the defined scope should be assessed against ISO 30000. Clear and measurable performance indicators should be established by an organisation (BS30004:2012, 2012).
In the ship recycling industry, activities related to safety, welfare, and environment are referred to as “ship recycling aspects”, while the favourable or unfavourable variations due to the ship recycling aspects are referred to as “ship recycling impacts”. An organisation is expected to identify and define its approach to both the ship recycling aspects and impacts. There are much legislations, international, national and local that affects ship recycling, which an organisation is required to be up-to-date and compliant. All these requirements will require appropriate human,
78
physical, and financial resources; as well as proper management of these resources. The management should create competent and make aware employees through training and good internal and external
communication practices (BS30004:2012, 2012). Additional
responsibilities of the management include proper documentation and control of documents, operational control, emergency preparedness and response, evaluating and monitoring ship recycling performances, and taking corrective and preventive actions. Others are regular audits and reviews, and constant improvements (BS30004:2012, 2012).
The first feature of the ship recycling industry is the adaptation of materials property information labels; and the second feature is the challenges of the composite materials. The third feature is the International Standards organisation (ISO 30000) ship recycling management system. The ISO 30000 adopts the PCDA management system, which endorse setting recycling targets and methods of achieving them, and establishing management structures with defined roles. The ISO further recommends making available all necessary resources, as well as documentation. Other recommendations of the ISO are monitoring and evaluation, auditing, updates and revisions. Nevertheless, all these features are either similar or desirable for the construction industry.
While the challenges for composite materials may be similar for the construction sector, materials property information label is very desirable for the construction industry. The PCDA management approach on the other hand, may not be an unknown system in the construction sector (Lee, 2002), however, its application for the development of an industry wide and international standard in the like of ISO 30004 or BS 30004 is yet not available in the construction sector.
The most important lessons to learn from the ship industry are the ISO 30004 ship recycling management model and the IMO requirement for ships to carry and maintain installed materials property labels throughout
79
their lifecycle. If this idea is transferred to the construction industry, buildings should be requested to carry and maintain materials property labels throughout its life cycle. The emphasis of the ISO 30004 on the role of the top-level management of organisations in the end-of-life management should be noted, especially as a lesson for the construction industry.
While dissimilar to the construction industry, the cell phones may be another source of lesson for the construction industry in material recovery at the end-of service of products.