Challenges to the green marine economy in China: Case study of Qianhe environmental terminal’s Bankruptcy

Abstract

The expansion of the world fleet has increased consequently discharge of oily sewage and garbage, which has become a threat to the marine ecology environment. Qianhe Terminal for Oily Wastewater and Garbage (Qianhe) was the first professional terminal to receive and dispose of oily sewage and garbage from ships in Ningbo-Zhoushan Port which was the largest port in the world. However, this terminal bankrupted after only two years of operation. In this study, the Interpretative Structural Model (ISM) is used to investigate why the bankruptcy of Qianhe happened as it was and find out the causes from different perspectives. The ISM-based model analyzed the interrelationships among those causes and their positions in the structural hierarchy from high-to low-level. The contributions provide lessons learning from the bankruptcy for ecology environment economy and offer managerial insight for the port policy.