Clean Ships, Clean Ports, Clean Oceans: Controlling Garbage and Plastic Wastes at Sea (1995)
Chapter: Intelligence
company managers, vessel agents and brokers, suppliers, and government regulators. Managers need to be informed about effective compliance strategies. Vessel agents and brokers are responsible for knowing local conditions and are the primary conduits of information about services between ship and shore. Suppliers can be encouraged to develop alternative packaging that minimizes waste. Vessel operators and crews need to be educated about the types of garbage subject to Annex V and APHIS regulations, and government officials need to be encouraged to improve integration of these two regimes (an issue addressed in Chapter 5).
Regulatory interventions include requiring foreign-flag ships that call at U.S. ports to keep logs of garbage transactions (now mandated for U.S.-flag ships only). To reach foreign-flag cargo ships, the Coast Guard prepared a small, well-illustrated book aimed at. providing ships' agents and other shoreside personnel with the information needed to help arrange garbage reception facilities and services for arriving ships, especially those discharging quarantined garbage (Kearney/Centaur, 1994). Another alternative would be to tighten control over port reception facilities. For example, the Coast Guard has proposed MPPRCA amendments that would require inspections of port reception facilities (including those not covered by the COA program) under certain conditions. A possible intervention at the international level would be to require that flag states audit shipboard garbage management systems and issue certificates confirming that they meet or exceed minimum standards.
Finally, because cost is a driving force in cargo operations, it is important to offer economic incentives to vessel owners and operators. Promising options include returning monies from recycling programs to vessel crews and revamping the highly inconsistent fee structures for garbage disposal (the latter issue is addressed in Chapter 5).
Passenger Day Boats, Ferries, and Their Terminals
Intelligence
Few data are available on garbage disposal by passenger day boats and ferries, but direct observation is relatively simple as the trips are short and predictable (and some casino ships don't move at all). In any case, there is minimal concern about Annex V implementation and enforcement in this sector, because voyages tend to be brief, and port calls are frequent and usually at dedicated facilities controlled by the vessel operator (Eric Scharf, National Association of Passenger Vessel Owners, personal communication to Marine Board staff, July 11, 1991).
