Clean Ships, Clean Ports, Clean Oceans: Controlling Garbage and Plastic Wastes at Sea (1995)
Chapter: EDUCATION AND TRAINING
projects, research on operations and maintenance issues, and information exchange are needed; (4) the Maritime Administration (MARAD) is the logical agency to coordinate development and deployment of on-board garbage handling technologies, due to its ongoing, broad-based marine technology assessment and development efforts; and (5) steps must be taken to resolve issues that may be impeding safe garbage storage and expanded use of compactors and incinerators.
On the port side of the system, there is little evidence of strategic planning to support the provision of "adequate" garbage reception facilities as required by Annex V. The Coast Guard issues Certificates of Adequacy (COA) to large commercial and fishing ports and requires that reception facilities be provided at many other ports, but there are no technical standards for judging adequacy. Other shortcomings of this part of the system include the poorly developed infrastructure for recycling; the need to address the authorities of the Coast Guard, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the states concerning the integration of vessel garbage into the regional solid waste management system; the lack of full integration of the Annex V regime and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) program, which oversees quarantine of garbage from foreign sources that may harbor diseases; and the need to address economic issues, including who should pay for vessel garbage services, and how—questions that may require some federal attention to resolve.
The committee concludes that (1) there is a need to assure accountability of both vessel operators and port operators; (2) recycling of vessel garbage needs to be promoted; (3) the EPA is the logical agency to establish the overall framework for improving the vessel/shore interface, due to its expertise in and authority for national management of solid waste; (4) the handling of APHIS waste needs to be integrated as fully as possible with the Annex V regime and the system for managing land-generated waste; and (5) there is a need to address economic issues, including the cost of technologies to vessel operators, trade-offs with garbage disposal services, and who should pay for garbage services and how.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Education has a strategic role to play in Annex V implementation because the oceans are too vast to monitor comprehensively. Seafarers therefore must be convinced to comply voluntarily and given the knowledge, training, and motivation to do so. A number of education and training programs have been carried out in support of Annex V implementation, most notably through MERP. While these efforts have been instrumental in the progress of Annex V implementation to date, they have been neither comprehensive nor long-term. These features will be needed to raise Annex V implementation to a higher level. A successful
