From earliest times, when a ship's life was over she was recycled to recover anything that could be reused. Wooden hulls were stripped and often burned to salvage the last of the metal fittings. At present, hundreds of ships are scrapped each year. In 2012, more than 1,000 of them made their final voyages to shipbreaking facilities that are mostly located in Asia. With ships' average service life of 20-30 years, there will always be a generous supply of hulls for this industry.
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