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| And oil drum found on a UK beach |
On the 1st
January 2013, changes made to Annex V of MARPOL– the international convention
relating to pollution from ships – will come into force and require a ship to
discharge its waste at a port waste reception facility rather than dumping it
at sea, as has been the allowance for several waste streams under the existing
Annex V.
Loop
holes will still exist, but largely speaking the changes are a positive move to
deter ship waste dumping.
Under
Annex V of MARPOL, waste streams include items such as packaging materials,
crockery, wood, glass and cargo residues, to name just a few.
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| Press clippings of recent legal cases |
In their
proposal at the Marine Environment Protection Committee of the International
Maritime Organisation, the industry groups argued that because of a presumed lack
of adequate reception facilities to handle cargo residues in some ports across
the globe, there should be a deferral of the coming into force of new
regulations so as to allow for adequate facilities to be put in place and for
ships in the meantime to dump cargo residues at sea where those facilities do
not exist.
Although
some sympathy can be ascribed to the shipping industry in this instance, in
reality ship’s have two choices to make rather than dump their waste at sea: 1)
if possible they store the cargo residues on board until they visit a port with
adequate facilities 2) they only use ports to unload their cargoes where
adequate waste reception facilities are in place.
The
decision of the IMO not to defer the coming into force of the new Annex V regulations
has a very powerful effect because without the obligation on a ship to
discharge their waste at a port, there is the potential that some ports will
never provide the adequate facilities because of the lack of demand for their
use.
It is
now the case that the IMO should conduct a thorough and independent review of
port reception facilities across the globe for the purpose of establishing which
ports should take remedial measures and to highlight, for the benefit of
shippers, the ports who provide adequate facilities.
In
addition, the IMO should also ensure that the GISIS system for the reporting of
inadequate facilities should become a mandatory requirement for ships because
in its present voluntary format, it is likely that the true scale of inadequate
facilities is not being represented.
However,
the provision of adequate reception facilities in conjunction with stronger
international regulations on ship waste is not the end game situation.
Ports also have to ensure that ship’s are not deterred from using the
facilities. Here, problems associated with the cost of discharging waste and
logistical constraints can pose barriers to their use. Again, good policy can
be instrumental, and now we have an opportunity for administrations across the
globe to assess their own port operations, and take the appropriate measures to
ensure that our seas become No Place For Waste.
For more information on marine litter: Click here
By Chris Carroll
