(www.MaritimeCyprus.com) Marine plastic litter is widely recognized as a threat to ocean health. Although it is generally assumed that most of the plastic waste entering the world’s oceans comes from land-based sources, marine plastic litter (MPL) also results from sea-based activities such as fishing and shipping. Therefore, the MARPOL Convention and its technical annexes contain provisions to regulate which types of waste from ships can (and cannot) be legally discharged into the sea.
Although MARPOL does not contain an explicit requirement for ships to deliver the waste carried on board to a reception facility before leaving the port, due to these strict discharge requirements ship operators are implicitly forced to deliver, as a minimum, the waste that cannot be legally discharged at sea to a reception facility in port. MARPOL also requires party States to ensure the provision of adequate port reception facilities (PRFs).
However, a substantial amount of waste from ships is still being discharged illegally at sea. To encourage ships to deliver their onboard generated waste to a reception facility, ports often apply schemes with financial incentives for ships not to discharge their waste at sea.
In general, these financial schemes apply the “polluter pays” principle and aim to ensure that the costs of PRFs for the collection of garbage from ships are (fully or partially) covered by a fee paid by all ships calling at the port. The funds collected through these charging systems can then be used to maintain and operate the facilities, support waste management infrastructure, and encourage responsible waste disposal practices.
Although these cost recovery systems may involve fees or charges levied on ships using PRFs based on the amount and type of waste delivered, cost recovery systems often include an indirect element, where the ship pays a waste fee irrespective of the actual delivery of waste, which gives the ship a right of delivery for its garbage. This eliminates any financial incentive for ships to discharge their waste such as plastic and old fishing gear at sea.
To take account of the differences between ships in terms of size, type of ship, on-board waste reduction, and the type of traffic the ship is engaged in, ports can differentiate the waste fee.
This Guidance Document describes the types of cost recovery systems for waste from ships that are currently applied in ports, and how they can consider the characteristics of merchant and cruise/passenger ports, fishing ports and recreational ports. This Guidance Document also provides an overview of the policy and regulatory framework regarding cost recovery systems, and the elements determining the cost of a PRF.
For more information you can download below the Guidance paper from IMO:
Source: IMO
