Elements of the voluntary Guidelines on Ship Recycling will now be considered for mandatory implementation following a decision made by the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Marine and Environment Protection Committee (MEPC). After some general discussion on the issue of ship recycling, the Committee established a working group and asked this group to identify elements of the IMO Ship Recycling Guidelines which may be suitable for mandatory implementation. This would also require an assessment of the mechanism by which the IMO would implement such requirements. Discussion on the latter issue progressed from talks of amending current IMO Conventions such as SOLAS and MARPOL…