Ship Garbage: How to manage waste on a ship?

Ship Garbage Waste: Wherever humans live, it is natural to generate some kind of waste, whether it is your home or a ship, there is definitely waste everywhere. But there are different rules for waste management in both these places.

Managing all this waste on a ship is not a little difficult, sometimes a lot of money has to be spent on waste management. It is not like a house where someone comes to collect the garbage every day.

different types of garbage on Ship

We have to adopt different ways to manage this waste and to be honest the waste itself is of many types.

Whenever you burn plastic, food waste, crockery, paper etc. types of waste in the incinerator then the incinerator produces ashes, there are batteries and other types of waste. Without going into the specifics of the categories of waste we have, I will try my best to keep things simple for you.

In today’s garbage story what I am going to tell you is how every type of waste is managed and as the post progresses you will also get to know what type of waste is generated on the ship.

Also Read: Top 10 Biggest Ship in The World

How is garbage generated on ships

First, let’s talk about how waste is generated whenever items like food etc. come on board a ship and the food always includes some packing material.

food waste on ship

Our first job is to manage the food and spare parts waste coming from outside the ship. Management means that as soon as we receive food etc. on the ship, we first remove their packaging such as cartons, plastic etc. After that, the removed waste is repacked and returned to the ship that brought the goods.

But even after returning the packaging waste, we still have some more waste left. It becomes necessary to keep it on the ship. Because it is also necessary to store the food or goods that have come. When the workers on the ship use the food etc., then after that, garbage is collected from small and big packets.

ship engine waste

The engine runs on oil, there are a lot of machinery working in the engine room. All of them use lubricating oils. Steam is also generated in the engine room of the ship and excess water is produced. All of these generate a different type of waste. We have to remove all those wastes from the engine room and collect them. That waste is burnt in the incinerator and then turns into ashes.

Small and big denting and painting is always done on the ship. This is done so that the rust of the ship is removed. All these also generate a type of waste on the ship. Other types of waste such as medicine waste, battery waste, bulb and tube light waste keep on being generated on the ship.

waste management

We try to manage the waste generated by the ship’s crew. These wastes are stored in the garbage room. We keep garbage bins in all cabins so that the garbage does not spread around, and take care of which garbage goes in which box. The garbage is then collected and dumped in the garbage room.

types of trash cans on ship

Four to five types of dustbins are used for garbage on a ship. For example, two types of dustbins are used in the ship’s kitchen. The first one is used to put food packets etc. The second one is used to put leftover food and liquid waste.

The third dustbin is used for managing plastic waste. The fourth dustbin is used to put waste from the ship’s engine room. And the fifth dustbin is used to manage waste of electric items like bulbs, batteries, switches, etc.

ship’s trash locker

This is the place on the ship where segregated waste is collected. Kitchen waste is stored separately, the waste from the engine room of the ship is stored separately. And the waste generated from electric items is kept in a separate store room. We call this the ship’s garbage locker.

kitchen waste management on board ship

When the chief cook of the ship comes here to cook food, different types of garbage are produced, such as vegetable peels, egg shells, chicken bones etc. are collected.

We have to manage the kitchen waste within the rules set by Marpol. The rule of garbage management is that if you live more than three miles from the land, then you can manage that garbage in the sea by grinding the leftover food.

rules of mar pol at sea

There is a special rule for waste management in the sea which is called the MARPOL rule. According to the MARPOL rule, special areas have been designated for the waste management of the ship.

We can dispose of the leftover food garbage by using a marine waste disposer. For this, we have to keep one thing in mind. That we should be in the sea at least three nautical miles away from the land and we should not be in anyone’s special area.

what is a ship’s incinerator

Whenever all the garbage is finally collected, we try to burn whatever is possible to reduce the amount of garbage generated.

When the garbage collected on the ship becomes too much, it is burned. This reduces the garbage. This method of burning is called incinerator.

The incinerator is used according to the rules made by the company and Marpol. Only that which is prescribed in the manual can be burned in it.

Everything that is burned mainly turns into ash, the amount of this ash is much less than the original amount of garbage.

waste management by boats

Whenever we are calling a port we always send them an email telling them how much garbage we have on the ship and there is so much garbage that we want to send ashore for garbage disposal and then they have to pay us sometimes it is $300, sometimes $400, sometimes $500 which is actually a lot more than what we pay for the garbage produced in 20 or 25 days.

Then we give our garbage to the boat, the boat takes all the garbage to the shore and using all these methods we manage the garbage on the ship.