Many recycled materials in different industries are traceable. The recycled content is often known in percentages. Steel is a material which gets recycled almost 100%. However it is not common practice to specify the recycled content for steel products. From a sustainability point of view this information can be very valuable. This thesis identifies the barriers and opportunities for a class notation that specifies the recycled content of a vessel or marine structure. Furthermore, the way certification of steel would influence trust, traceability and transparency of a circular economy in the shipbuilding industry has been investigated. This was done from the point of view of a classification society but to reach the conclusion, the entire shipbuilding value chain has been investigated. Semi structured interviews were held with different stakeholders from the ship building value chain. These interviewees were steel manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers, ship yards, recycling yards, classification societies, financial institutions, ship repair yards and shipping companies. Barriers that were found are, amongst others, technical feasibility, steel market, yard logistics, customer willingness to pay, green washing, ship recycling standards, demographic differences, etc. The first conclusion is that, although sustainability is high on the agenda for most companies, the efforts and goals on this matter are scattered and uncoordinated. All stakeholders, except for the steelmakers, see the benefit for certification of recycled steel in terms of increased sustainability. The steelmakers possess the ability to provide all necessary information and there are no technical barriers. This means that they are able to provide steel products with a specified percentage of recycled content. The main barrier for different stakeholders are the extra resources they need to spent to incorporate a new type of certification into their business processes. None of these stakeholders want to take the risk as a single player, but are willing to take part once collaboration amongst all stakeholders are guaranteed. This creates the business opportunity for classification societies to provide this opportunity and take the lead for this innovation. A review of current certification steps for steel products has been made and adapted to include extra steps to certify the recycled contents. The effect of this extra steps with regard to stakeholders downstream has been investigated and validated by means of the interviews. Another topic is the digitalisation. Because of the increased ability to process big data, there are opportunities to tackle certification of recycled products and the subsequent traceability by means of blockchain technology. These opportunities are identified and are proposed as optional further research topics.