(www.MaritimeCyprus.com) A Best Practice Guide is available to help shipowners decrease their use of single-use plastics. The guide recommends installing advanced drinking water systems on ships to ensure the highest quality drinking water is available for seafarers, thereby prioritizing their well-being.
A survey in 2021 determined that between half a billion and one billion bottles of drinking water are used on board cargo ships for seafarer hydration needs per year. These are primarily single-use plastic (SUP) bottles. Even with all the best efforts to undertake proper management onboard and discharge of the plastic waste generated, there is still a risk that bottles could reach the ocean due to mismanagement on land becoming part of the “marine litter” problem.
As well as the catastrophic impact poorly managed plastic waste is having on the ocean plastic bottles have other environmental footprints such as high greenhouse gas emission (from production to supply) and high water-demand during production.
A key priority is empowering shipowners to significantly reduce and, where feasible, eliminate single-use plastic (SUP) bottles from their vessels. This initiative is seen as a crucial opportunity for the shipping industry to demonstrate strong leadership in environmental stewardship. The best practice guide illustrates the simplicity of this transition, while also highlighting the substantial cost savings and the clear business, ethical, and environmental advantages of moving away from plastics.
The guide addresses the issue of how to provide drinking water on ships without using single-use plastic bottles. Such bottles are recognised as a significant source of marine pollution due to the sheer volumes used globally and the high potential for mismanagement of waste on land - meaning they may become litter even if good waste management onboard is in place.
The guide also provides information for shipowners to enable them to develop strategies and plans and highlights the significant cost-savings and additional business, moral and environmental benefits of stepping away from plastics. Practical steps are provided for shipowners wishing to move away from the use of plastic bottles for supplying drinking water on board. The guide describes technologies designed to replace bottled water and details key questions for shipowners to ask potential suppliers- providing the necessary tools to choose the most effective and suitable system.
Most important the guide seeks to ensure seafarer wellbeing in at the core. Changing seafarers’ behaviour and attitude towards drinking water provided from an onboard system (or “tap water”) is fundamental and perhaps the most critical component towards ensuring the success of the whole initiative. As such, this guide outlines different methods to encourage seafarers to trust and consume water produced on board, including regular water testing, transparent communication of test results, and conducting blind taste tests as well as ways to dispel misconceptions about tap water.
You can access the BIMCO paper "The Art and Science of removing Single-use Plastic Bottles from ships", by clicking below (the file is 72MB so there will be some time to download):
Source: BIMCO
