THE debate about how we build a generation of green ships is ubiquitous and everyone wants in on it.

The question of how we get rid of the current fleet is less popular.

Whichever way you look at it, global recycling volumes are going to grow significantly, doubling by 2028 to 14 million light displacement tonnes and near quadrupling by 2033.

That means more, bigger recycling facilities set up to deal with more and bigger ships.

Now that may seem odd given that ship recycling levels are at a 10-year low right now unlikely to recover in the short term.

But as discussed a few weeks ago on the podcast, the concept of the circular economy is a long-term planning process in which we need to build in sustainability to every stage of the shipping lifecycle. So now is exactly the time we should be talking about the impact of decarbonisation regulation and how it will be dealt with in terms of ship recycling.

With that in mind, the Lloyd’s List Podcast drafted in Anil Sharma this week — he’s the president and chief executive of Global Marketing Systems, GMS to most of us. They are the world’s largest buyer of ships and offshore assets for recycling and Anil has spearheaded a number of key initiatives aimed at making ship recycling cleaner, greener and more sustainable over the years. He has also got a very pragmatic, business-based view on what that means in reality, so Podcast host Richard Meade talks to Anil about the regulatory pressures coming down the line for recycling, the consequences of EEXI, CII and the raft of costly acronyms headed everyone’s way. They also talk about the circular economy and how the industry can move towards a more collaborative approach to shipping lifecycles.

But first of all they talk about what’s not happening in ship recycling yards. Why is nobody scrapping right now?