"Safety is our motto" reads this welcome sign at Alang, a statement heavily criticized
The Alang Ship Recycling Yard is a site in Gujarat, India which recycles more ships than any other other shipyard in the world. The site is located on the Gulf of Khambat, 50 kilometers southeast of Bhavnagar.
The shipyard was established in 1982, on a beach which has high tide only twice a month. Large supertankers, car ferries and container ships are beached during high tide, and as the tide recedes, hundreds of manual laborers dismantle each ship, salvaging what they can, and reducing the rest into scrap. Tens of thousands of low-paid jobs are supported by this activity, and millions of tons of steel are recovered.
The shipyard has generated controversy about its working conditions, its workers' living conditions, and its impact on the environment.
It is possibly the model for the shipyard described in the Iain Banks novel, The Business.
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Large supertankers, car ferries and container ships are beached during high tide, and as the tide recedes, hundreds of manual laborers dismantle each ship, salvaging what they can, and reducing the rest into scrap.
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