Hong Kong international convention for the safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships, 2009 known as Hong Kong convention, was adopted by IMO in 2009 and entered into force.

The convention regulate the recycling of the ship so that to ensure safety and environment protection

As every ship include hazardous material into its structure, machinery and equipment such as Asbestos, Hydrocarbones, Ozone depleting materials, heavy metals and others , so the convention has imposed regulations to ensure that these hazardous material are recycled in a safe way to avoid harm to the safety, health and the environment

The convention applies to all ships more than 500 GRT

It requires new ships (built on or after the convention) to have Inventory of Hazardous Material (IHM) indicating the amount and location of hazardous material mentioned in Appendix 1 of the convention

The a survey is to be done onboard to verify the IHM of the ship, upon satisfactory completion, International certificate on inventory of Hazard material (ICIHM)

Before going to scrapping yard, ship recycling plan is prepared by the recycling facility (scrapping yard) and approved by competent authority

At last stage International Ready for Recycling Certificate is issued to the ship prior to heading to the scrapping facility

For existing ships (built before the entry into force of the convention), the procedure is the same except that it is required to comply after 5 years from the date of coming into force or before going to scrap whatever is earlier