Discharges to sea > Garbage

Garbage

Garbage means all kinds of victual, domestic and operational waste excluding fresh fish and parts thereof, generated during the normal operation of the ship. Typical examples are paper products, rags, glass, metal, bottles, wood, dunnage etc.

Garbage from ships can be just as deadly to marine life as oil or chemicals. The greatest danger is related to plastic, which can float for years. Fish and marine mammals may in some cases mistake plastics for food and they can also become trapped in plastic ropes, nets, bags and other items - even such innocuous items as the plastic rings used to hold cans of beer and drinks together.

It is clear that a good deal of the garbage washed up on beaches comes from people on shore - holiday-makers who leave their rubbish on the beach, fishermen who simply throw unwanted refuse over the side - or from towns and cities that dump rubbish into rivers or the sea. But in some areas most of the rubbish found comes from passing ships which find it convenient to throw rubbish overboard rather than dispose of it in ports.

For a long while, many people believed that the oceans could absorb anything that was thrown into them, but this attitude has changed along with greater awareness of the environment. Many items can be degraded by the seas - but this process can take months or years.

Regulations for the Prevention of pollution by garbage from ships are contained in Annex V of MARPOL 73/78.

Environmental impact

Regulations

Reduction methods

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