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What do you do with garbage during an offshore voyage.

15K views 75 replies 26 participants last post by  senormechanico 
#1 ·
This is something I have been wondering about lately, while it seems like it will be several more years before I am ready to do any bluewater sailing, I was wondering what the offshore sailors do with their garbage during long passages. I would assume that a significant amount of waste is created during passages that are several weeks long, but I wouldn't think it would be allowed to dump it overboard so how do you store so much waste onboard. I am specifically curious about how those individuals who do nonstop circumnavigations manage this because they must produce an astronomical amount of waste.
 
#2 · (Edited)
Well, you can't create more waste than you bring with you.

There was an interesting thread on this on CF a couple of years ago where a couple of nit wits filmed themselves throwing 45 gallon fuel drums overboard in the ocean.

So some of them are throwing it overboard.

Most ocean going yachts have a Y valve so you can pump your human waste directly overboard, which is legal.
 
#3 · (Edited)
You put it in trash bags and you bring it to land with you. You will have empty cans from canned food. You will have empty cardboard and plastic packages from food items and you can rinse food cans with sea water so they don't smell so you can have "clean" trash and mash them and pack them in a garbage bag and bring them back.

They will be lighter because they are empty and they will take up less room because they can be smashed flat. If you fish, you can throw the fish parts back in the sea because they will be eaten by other things.

But please please don't throw non biodegradable trash in the ocean.

This is an animated depiction of the growth of the floating garbage fields in the oceans.
 
#6 ·
You have to make some educated decisions involving the nature of the waste and the level of development of your destination. For starters, try to reduce the waste you will produce by shopping wisely. A simple example, don't buy cases of water bottles if you can avoid it. This means having a freshwater system onboard that will provide you with safe, palatable water (water maker, clean tanks, chlorination if needed, filtering onboard). The destination matters. If you are in the developing world there likely is no proper waste handling available. In some places in the Caribbean guys will offer to take your garbage bag for a modest fee. They just take it a block or two away and dump it in a convenient vacant lot. What we have done when well away from land, and as an environmentalist I feel OK about: organics go in the ocean - they will be consumed either by micro or macro organisms, in deep water cans and bottles (open!) go in the water. They will decompose a lot more safely (or just sit there) in 2+ miles of water than in a garbage dump on land. Aluminum cans are a possible exception here since their scrap value is high. In many places (not all), locals are happy to get these cans and they get recycled. Paper gets torn-up and goes overboard as well.That leaves plastics which are a big problem. These go ashore. In some places people will repurpose some kinds of plastic containers, but much plastic will end up being disposed of in less than ideal circumstances - this is why it is a good idea to reduce the number of disposable plastic containers you bring with you. BTW, we have dropped a few messages in wind bottles without a return so far.
 
#9 · (Edited)
What we have done when well away from land, and as an environmentalist I feel OK about: ....in deep water cans and bottles (open!) go in the water.
If you're throwing cans and bottles into the ocean, in violation of MARPOL regulations, I don't think you can consider yourself much of an environmentalist.

Why not smash the cans and transport them, along with the bottles, and do your best to see that they get recycled. You carried them out to sea. It doesn't take much effort to transport them back empty.
 
#8 · (Edited)
It's good you specified international waters, because in any countries territorial waters, you are likely to be subject to at least two nations marine envirinmental laws.

The flag state, or where the vessel is registered. Often US if you're American or Canada if you're Canadian etc.

And, the port state, so the countries waters that you are visiting.

In international waters you will most likely be primarily accountable to only your flag states environmental laws.

I would exercise caution regarding throwing cans and bottles overboard. Times are changing, what flew 10 or 20 years ago, may not fly now.

Some busy commercial shipping routes are like junk yards on the bottom of the ocean.

I am aware of a diver that dove out where the galley porthole would have been on the ship that regularly docked there. Beneath the porthole was a large, deep pile of garbage. Mostly empty cans and broken dishes, because the cooks would just toss dishes out the window when they broke while being washed.

The world's sea beds are being destroyed by individuals who say my one little anchor won't hurt this coral bed, or a trawler who drags his one net over the bottom, destroying habitat and one guy throwing his soup cans over the side.
 
#10 ·
Bring the stuff in sturdy watertight seal-able tubs such as 5 gallon plastic "paint cans" with lids. Bring one spare empty. As you empty a tub of food... fill it with the trash and compact it down.

On a short trip you just need one full and one empty... and end up with one partly full of trash, the other empty (maybe if you didn't bring more food than you needed)

Long trip you should average 3 full of trash for every 5 you emptied. The empties can be nest-stacked to save some space.
 
#11 ·
Questions like this are ripe for arguments over the environment. We'll see.

Scale is often lost in the rhetoric. If every cruiser tossed all their metal food cans into international waters 2nm deep (as noted above), it wouldn't amass the volume in a thousand years of one single sunken wreck. There are tens of thousands of wrecks on the seafloor, whose metal is not destroying the environment. In fact, there have been environmental programs to intentionally place old steel wrecks on the sea floor as artificial reefs. Your soup can, in 10,000 feet of water, certainly isn't going to become a reef, but it also isn't going to destroy the environment. Burying it in the dirt ashore is no different. IMO.

Generally, I don't travel offshore long enough to bother discarding any trash overboard. I bring it all to shore, where it finds it's way to a hole in the ground, along with the plastic bag I put it in. This is considered environmentally friendly? :rolleyes:

If I do, organics are separated and go over first. Cans next. Plastic never.

Best way to limit packaging trash at sea, is to have reusable containers that you repackage into. Of course, your packaging typically goes back to that hole in the ground instead. Across the globe, recycling is pretty limited. Oddly enough, with all the environmental rules in RI, our marina does not separate and recycle.
 
#12 · (Edited)
I was wondering what the offshore sailors do with their garbage during long passages.
I follow the rules, which have changed recently. The MARPOL Annex V was updated in 2012. You can read the official summary here.

The big change is that domestic waste (cans, bottles, cardboard, paper) are no longer permitted for direct discharge. This is a major pain to comply with but those are the rules. It does mean much more attention to garbage management including packing garbage to minimize space.

Plastics have been prohibited for years under Annex V. Oil and other petroleum products are prohibited under Annex I. Sewage is permitted beyond 12 nm from shore under Annex IV.

The key continues to be not to take anything on board that can be avoided. Choose carefully what you do carry. For example, if you can still find cans with rolled edges at both ends flattening will be easier and more effective. Reusable storage containers help tremendously as do reusable drinking containers. Dinghies go upside down on the foredeck offshore so using them as a trash receptacle doesn't work. Trash storage may be in a sail locker, a cockpit locker, or even the anchor locker. Sometimes it ends up on the floor in my cabin (one of the joys of being skipper). You have to pack the trash to conserve space. I double bag to reduce spills. The number of bags depends greatly on how well crew get on board with packing the trash. Two or three large bags are usual for four people offshore for two weeks. Inshore when the dinghy may be in davits I agree with the earlier point of storing trash in the dinghy, being careful that the bag doesn't blow out.

We all have to make our own judgments. It is an unfortunate truth (not an Inconvenient Truth - that is something else *grin*) that waste is not always handled well in many of the cruising grounds we travel in. Where it is legal a trash fire on the beach may be more responsible than using local waste management. Regardless, my approach is to follow the rules (I'm funny that way). More places are taking waste disposal seriously which is good news.

It is up to us to do our parts.
 
#13 ·
Good for you SVauspicious. Yes, indeed the rules have changed, as has public perception and oversight.

The days of touching up the varnish on the propane locker and tossing the partially empty can over the side, brush and all are over, or at least they should be.

I have actually heard you mention in a previous post your waste management plan, which likely includes a garbage log. Some carribean or south Pacific back water may not give a hoot about your garbage log. Any responsible government may take an interest upon arrival though.

Maybe we aren't quite to the point yet where customs officers check garbage logs (after all, international waste is more of a CG concern than a customs issue), maybe we aren't even to the point yet where most people even have them, but it won't be long until yachts in international waters will have no choice but to log their garbage.

There would be no need for waste management plans and garbage logs if people behaved responsibly by choice, but we all know how that works.
 
#16 ·
Good for you SVauspicious. Yes, indeed the rules have changed, as has public perception and oversight.
I have actually heard you mention in a previous post your waste management plan, which likely includes a garbage log.
It is worth noting that boats over 40' (actually 12 meters, so a little over 40') must have a waste management plan. Most boats meet that requirement with a placard from West Marine. To my knowledge those have still not been updated for MARPOL 2012.

I do indeed have a written waste management plan. I have done my best to be consistent with international and US law. I'm happy to share my plan http://auspiciousworks.com/WasteManagement.pdf

I do not have a garbage log as there is no legal requirement for one that I am aware of. Please correct me if you can find one. I certainly don't log pitching the galley garbage bowl after each meal. If something extraordinary happens (like 20 lbs of potatoes going liquid) it will likely end up in the ship's log just because it becomes a major evolution.
 
#14 ·
We're coastal sailors and do no long offshore cruising. Still, garbage is a finite storage problem, just like tankage. If a boat's lockers are stuffed full when you cast off for a few weeks of even coastal sailing, your trash 'tankage' is undersized.

Removing as much future trash before it goes onboard (like many have mentioned), is first. Then it's important for us to recycle, compress, sort as much as possible to reduce volume. That leaves (in our case) a smaller volume of organic material in small bags.

It's surprising how fast garbage builds up on a coastal sailboat. We don't throw a lot of organic material overboard with shoreside disposal more readily available.

In our case, we end up storing recyclables and small bags of organic waste, in cockpit lockers. Our old boat has huge storage in these lockers.

The simple system we use to stow the above are tall kitchen waste bins. The are self stowing nesting inside each other. No garbage = 1 empty bin.

Once we're out a day or so, we end up with two bins; one holds small bags of organics, the other recyclables.

Then it's usually recyclables that tops a bin, and we un-nest another bin and begin filling that. At this point, we have just 3 bins permenantly onboard. With plans to be off longer in the future, I'll add a couple more to the nest which takes up no extra space, when nested.

But this system only works if you have the volume to start with. I see trash as a tankage issue on our boat. The longer we can stay out on our tankage, the better.
 
#15 ·
I did know about the MARPOL changes. In 2012 we were in the southern Indian Ocean and the news did not get much notice there. I still think what happens to trash like cans and bottles depends on what the alternatives are. In much of the world recycling and proper landfills do not exist. A clean can dropped in the deep ocean is better placed than one that ends up dumped at the edge of a village in a poor country where it will sit for decades before it rusts away. A bottle won't even rust and be there for centuries.
 
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#17 ·
I still think what happens to trash like cans and bottles depends on what the alternatives are.
I agree with you. I think the update should have excluded boats below 20 meters, but it didn't.

I'm a rule-bound guy. I'll object, write letters, testify and still follow the rules. That's me.

Fundamentally, if you had room to carry it on the boat you have room to carry it off the boat. I still dislike having to pack and repack and re-repack garbage while offshore. PITA.
 
#18 ·
Where ever you put it make sure you double bag it and don't put it in an area that has non-skid. You would be surprised how quick bilge pumps foul with four pounds of coffee grounds being washed to them from a split rudder post. Don't ask me how I know.

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#19 · (Edited)
In Canada (I don't know US regulations very well) commercial operators are required to maintain garbage records.

I wasn't sure if you were pleasure or commercial. Nor do I know if US has the same requirement. Going forward, I suspect the regulations for record keeping will start to include pleasure craft. I wouldn't be surprised if Europe already has.

In Canada, this is "regulations for the prevention of pollution from ships and for dangerous cargoes" division 5.

Edit: Logging of oily discharge is required. There are exemptions in place for record keeping requirements, it's complicated, that's why I was just guessing that you might keep a garbage record.

It's enough to say the noose is tightening and people will have fewer and fewer opportunities to pollute as the rules evolve.
 
#20 ·
In Canada (I don't know US regulations very well) all commercial operators over 5 tons are required to maintain garbage records.

I wasn't sure if you were pleasure or commercial. Nor do I know if US has the same requirement. Going forward, I suspect the regulations for record keeping will start to include pleasure craft. I wouldn't be surprised if Europe already has.

In Canada, this is "regulations for the prevention of pollution from ships and for dangerous cargoes" division 5.
MARPOL is an international agreement under IMO. I think every maritime nation in the world is a signatory. Our sovereign countries then implement the agreement in domestic regulation. It sounds like Canada has added a logging requirement which is well within your rights. What applies only to nationals and what can be imposed on visiting boats and ships differs. I defer to maritime attorneys and do what they say. *grin*

Commercial v. recreational follows the boat, not the skipper. My delivery work is all recreational boats. Of course my own boat is recreational. I try to keep up with everything but there could be a US logging requirement for commercial platforms I am not aware of.
 
#21 ·
^^^ I agree with this assessment. I do not log garbage on my pleasure vessel. Just oily waste.

It's really easy. I do one, maybe two oil changes a year. It goes in my regular log book something like "1 oil filter and 4 gallons of oil disposed of ashore to disposal facility provided by Bob's Marina".

My part time delivery business focusses entirely on commercial clients, I have never done a pleasure craft delivery. For garbage logging when I'm doing a delivery on a commercial vessel, it's again very easy. Regular log book "3 bags of household waste and one tire disposed of in dumpster on Bob street wharf" type of thing.

It's amazing how much more I think about stuff when I know I'm going to have to write it down.
 
#22 ·
As killarney_sailor writes, a big problem with bringing trash to shore is what happens to it then. In many places, if it is not simply dumped in some undeveloped land, it will get put onto a perpetually smoldering trash pile. Either way, much of the refuse finds its way into the ocean, be it by wind, rain, storm surge, or dump truck. This problem is exacerbated by people who store their trash in plastic bags. The plastic bags become a big problem by themselves, whether stored on top of the land or partially burned.

In my mind, the MARPOL rules have good intentions, but the unintended consequences are probably worse than the original problem. They also put an undue burden on small, destination islands that are ill-equipped to store visitors' non-degradable trash.
 
#25 ·
First thing is don't take it with you in the first place. Remove and discard as much of the packaging as you can before it goes on the boat. Surprising how little will be left after you do that. Underway, compress plastic containers as much as possible and stow in a trash bag when you consume the contents, dump at your destination. Cans, both aluminum and steel, are biodgradable in short order in sea water so put holes in both ends and toss overboard. Bust the bottoms out of Glass bottles and chuck them overboard. Will make great octopus homes. We are not talking about in shore coastal cruising or anchorages where it's not a big thing to bag all your refuse and dispose on shore but open ocean sailing. Be aware that most out of the way cruising destinations will not have any community trash service. At best they will have a dump in some ravine or each home will burn it's trash in a barrel. Not uncommon for the locals to dump trash along side the road or other not so out of the way place. Seems to be a favorite trick not only in out of the way places but anywhere.
 
#26 ·
First thing is don't take it with you in the first place. Remove and discard as much of the packaging as you can before it goes on the boat. Surprising how little will be left after you do that.
Exactly! Remove stuff from cardboard on shore and recycle and label inside bags with a sharpie. Takes up less room and less trash aboard. Also less chance of critters.

No disposable water bottles allowed.
 
#29 ·
The solution to pollution is dilution, so arguably heaving degradable material like metal, glass and certainly biological waste, can be environmentally benign.

Not producing the waste in the first place is best choice. Recycling is a distant second option where facilities exist to do so. Concentrating the waste into localized garbage dumps is the worst outcome. If the countries you are visiting lacks proper recycling facilities, or properly engineered landfills, collecting your waste and depositing it in these lands is worse than dumping at sea.

With regard to recycling though, even the best processes are rarely benign. It takes huge amounts of energy and other resources to recycle material. In most cases these processes create other wastes that aren’t easily managed. Recycling is definitely not the panacea.
 
#31 · (Edited)
Ya, it's pretty hard to argue with necessity. If you really can't get to a disposal facility because you are in Haiti, it's pretty hard to argue with going 12 miles offshore and dropping a few carrot cans over the side.

The problem is, that isn't what yachtsman have been doing for the last 40 years. They've been throwing over fuel drums and 1 gallon paint cans and oil filters, because even though theyown a half million dollar yacht, they don't want to pay the $4 disposal fee once they reached shore.

If somebody is being genuinely pragmatic the old rules make sense, unfortunately, I think a lot more were just being lazy.
 
#32 ·
....The problem is, that isn't what yachtsman have been doing for the last 40 years. They've been throwing over fuel drums and 1 gallon paint cans and oil filters, because even though theyown a half million dollar yacht, they don't want to pay the $4 disposal fee once they reached shore......
In my 40+ years on the water, I've never known anyone to do this, let alone anyone with a "half million dollar yacht". Most boaters are environmentally friendly, at least from a pragmatic point of view. Probably better defined as conservationists, than environmentalists. They don't all follow all the rules, as some really are like speed limits, but I know no one who would toss paint in the water.

I'm sure it's been done. Just no way you can paint 40 years of yachtsman with such a wide brush.

Maybe Canada is different. We don't have disposal fees for oil. There are places that are required to take it. My mechanic actually has a waste oil heater that heats his workspace. He'll take it all.
 
#33 ·
So you didn't watch the videos of the guys throwing the fuel drums over board? Texaco drums? I doubt they were Canadian.

Did you read how many cruisers on CF defended the practice?

I'm not saying every one does it, but I've seen evidence of enough people doing it that I'm convinced it happens more than just that once on YouTube.
 
#34 ·
In my years in the water we never hesitated to throw scrap food overboard. If we were in deep water like over 1000 feet we would use the hydraulic handle to pop the bottoms off glass bottles and drop them too. Paper, plastic, used oil filters, used oil all went ashore and were disposed of properly. One boat I spent quite a few years on we had the dinghy on deck right side up so that was a natural place to put the trash till we got ashore. Had one of those bungee nets Toledo them from getting sucked out in a blow.

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#37 ·
From a guy who lives his life from a practical and prudent perspective it is sure entertaining to follow you guys trying to twist your actions to be "better for the environment" than everyone else. Meanwhile, you seem to be living lives of consumption and not producing much to be of help to your fellow man. The oceans survived the massive pollution and destruction of WWII, I think they will survive the disruptions of a few yacht club boys or some self serving folks trying to escape from the realities of the world.....

Go ahead, fire away........
 
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