Karl Townsend wrote:
But, if not, why go through all the expense to dump scrap in the ocean,
when
these mega-tons of steel could be recycled? With much less expense and
chemical waste ito prep/cleaning, etc.?

There was a 60 minutes expose on this a couple years ago. The only place
that can do this for less than the cost of the ship is Bangladesh or east
Pakistan. No pollution laws and almost slave labor rates. I guess its just
too damned expensive to do it right.

Karl

There is a problem in design these days, Europe is just beginning to
start addressing the concept of designing end of life into products.

By this I mean, using materials in ways and in combinations that make
for easier recycling and scrapping. Many plastic items are not
recyclable simply because they are made as laminates of different types
of plastics, and once joined together, the formerly recyclable materials
become garbage. Ships are notorious for asbestos, PCB's and other nasty
materials, and that's before you get to cargo residues and bilge scrapings.