Geography-Washing: The NGO Shipbreaking Platform Finds Yet Another Country to Disapprove Of in International Shipping News 08/06/2026 The Usual Answer: Ban It There is a certain comfort in consistency, and the NGO Shipbreaking Platform offers it in abundance. Whatever the question, the answer is a ban. Whatever the progress, the verdict is insufficient. Whatever the country, the conclusion is the same: not good enough, please remove from the list. Their latest joint press release, produced alongside EUROFER and Recycling Europe, the European steel and scrap lobbies, calls on the EU to ban both beaching and landing methods outright and to strike Turkish yards from the European List “until necessary improvements are properly implemented.” One has to admire the ambition. Having spent two decades insisting that beaching in South Asia was the great evil of ship recycling, the Platform has now discovered that the landing method in Turkey is also unacceptable. Turkey, let us remember, was for years presented by the same chorus as the more acceptable alternative. Not perfect, of course, because nothing ever is, but at least closer, cleaner, and more European in spirit. Now, apparently, that will not do either. The goalposts have not so much moved as boarded a ship and sailed off entirely. Geography-Washing in Plain Sight This is the heart of what the industry has come to recognise as geography-washing: the steady substitution of postcode for performance. The Platform’s objection is increasingly difficult to understand as a concern about method, safety, or measurable environmental outcome. It looks more and more like an objection to a map. Steel cut in Ghent is a circular economy. The identical steel cut in Alang or Aliağa is a scandal. The chemistry is the same. The certification may be the same. The procedures may be audited. The downstream waste chain may be documented. The workers may be trained. The yard may have invested millions. But the flag flying over the yard is w