The Recycling of Australian Offshore Structures in Bangladesh

Abstract

The circular economy has emerged as a policy goal with respect to the trade relationships between developed and developing countries. The aim of the circular economy is to take responsibility for the costs involved in recycling by going away from the linear economic model, which is briefly stated as 'take-recycle-dispose' with unused materials in at one end and externalised the wastes at the other. Recycling numerous unused structures is a persisting problem for Australia that can be resolved following this circular economy approach. To that end, an underlying aim of this chapter is to propose a bilateral agreement between Bangladesh and Australia that aims at recycling offshore structures of Australian companies in Bangladesh's ship recycling industry (hereinafter referred to as recycling industry). This chapter also sheds light on the challenges for Bangladesh in recycling the offshore structures in a sustainable way but disputes that those offshore structures will only increase the waste burden for Bangladesh.