Decommissioning weight

Decommissioning weight is the mass of a ship at the end of its life as it enters recycling, the lightship reduced by removable items already stripped out and increased by accumulated sludge, scale, and trapped residues. It feeds the light-displacement tonnage (LDT) figure that ship-recycling sales are priced on, since a yard buys the vessel by the steel tonne. The Hong Kong Convention and the EU Ship Recycling Regulation require an Inventory of Hazardous Materials and a ship-recycling plan, so the decommissioning weight is broken down by material stream for the recycling facility. It is an estimate built from the as-built lightship, the weight log of modifications over the ship’s service, and an allowance for marine growth and retained liquids.