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| A Woman's Directory For Travel and Life. WAVE Journey is your one stop online resource for women oriented businesses and services around the world. WAVE Journey is for every woman to enjoy. If you love to travel, cook, read or revel in outdoor activities this website is for you. If you are looking to connect with other like-minded women or if you are interested in finding businesses or services that cater to women, WAVE Journey is your number one online resource. Cruise Ships & The Environment! - continued pg. 2 ~ article by Betsy Scherr, photo courtesy of WAVEJourney.com |
| WAVE Journey |
| Women's Adventures, Vacations & Experiences ~ Your Journey Starts Here! |
Royal Caribbean also has other unique environmental programs such as
”Save the Waves”. Its motto: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. They instituted
"The Ocean Fund", which supports efforts to restore & maintain healthy
marine environments. Grants are made annually to a variety of non-profit
organizations. To date over $10 million has been awarded. Plus, it is way
too complicated for a non-engineer like me to try and explain the latest
technological advances you will find on these new mega ships. I feel I am in
a Star Wars movie with all the high tech gadgets & gizmos! From the hull
design to the propulsion, heating, ventilation and water filtration systems;
all newly designed to run as efficiently as possible. Even the solar panels
and tinted windows save energy and are eco-friendly!
Other cruise lines are also stepping up to the plate. NCL has introduced a
recycling program in which some 15,000 gallons of used cooking oil was off-
loaded & converted into useable biodiesel for farming in Florida. Holland
America has a Ship to Shore reusable goods program where linens, dishes,
and mattresses, are donated to charities.
Now, on the other end, most cruise lines do not have the best
environmental track record. They have all endured their share of fines along
the way, including many of the biggest, Carnival, NCL & Royal Caribbean
included. RCI-RCCL pleaded guilty in 1999 to 21 counts of dumping oil &
hazardous chemicals in the ocean. With various plea agreements, the
company paid $18 million in fines to settle those cases. Unfortunately, not all
cruise lines have learned their lesson and changed their practices. There are
some who continue to dump unlawfully into our oceans or pollute our air. If
you talk to Friends of the Earth, (FOE) an environmental activist group in San
Francisco, they will tell you about numerous violations by various cruise lines
in recent years. I do agree with Friends of the Earth on certain items,
especially uniform national regulations of all cruise lines with regard to
sewage and hazardous wastes dumping.
On the subject of hazardous waste, FOE recent report states “Cruise
industry compliance with hazardous waste laws in the US must be seen in
the context of confusion over what regulations apply. The Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) is the primary federal law governing
hazardous waste and its disposal, but it is not entirely clear what elements
apply to cruise ships. RCRA rules that cover small quantity generators (those
that generate 100 kilograms but less than 1,000 kilograms per month) are
less stringent than those of large quantity generators (generate more than
1,000 kilograms per month) and it is unclear whether cruise ships are
classified as large or small generators of hazardous waste. Further it is
unclear whether these limits are applied for each ship individually or whether
they apply to a company’s full complement of ships and are taken together.
This confusion leads to inconsistencies in practice and some would argue to
less stringent record keeping that should be required”. These various
loopholes have been exploited by cruise lines and why I think there is a
need for better and clearer regulatory laws.
FOE has also addressed the issue of air pollution. Cruise ships generate two
sources of air pollution: from their engines, which normally burn dirty fuels
and their incinerators which burn a variety of wastes. Here are some of their
recommendations for this issue:
*Prohibit the use of onboard incinerators within 20 miles of the coast
* Require ships to use marine gas oil, or marine diesel oil with a sulfur
content of no more than 0.5 percent by weight, in all diesel engines within
24 nautical miles of the coast immediately and by 0.1 percent by 2012.
You can go to www.foe.org to see their full report on “Getting a Grip on
Cruise Ship Pollution”.
Overall, do I think the cruise lines have improved their environmental record
and are doing a much better job the past few years? Do I believe national
standards and regulations are necessary for disposal of sewage and
hazardous waste? Would I like to see monitoring programs and inspections
of cruise ships put into place, even if it costs a few bucks more to each
passenger? In my opinion, the answer is YES to all of the above.
Innovation, regulation, monitoring and an active environmental community
are all needed to keep our oceans, shores and marine life safe. I encourage
anyone who is interested in this subject to read and learn as much as you
can. It will continue to be a topic of discussion for many years to come as
more and more travelers take to the high seas for their vacations!
Betsy Scherr can be reached at: betsy.scherr@gmail.com
Tel: 541-385-0499 or 480-306-7635.
”Save the Waves”. Its motto: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. They instituted
"The Ocean Fund", which supports efforts to restore & maintain healthy
marine environments. Grants are made annually to a variety of non-profit
organizations. To date over $10 million has been awarded. Plus, it is way
too complicated for a non-engineer like me to try and explain the latest
technological advances you will find on these new mega ships. I feel I am in
a Star Wars movie with all the high tech gadgets & gizmos! From the hull
design to the propulsion, heating, ventilation and water filtration systems;
all newly designed to run as efficiently as possible. Even the solar panels
and tinted windows save energy and are eco-friendly!
Other cruise lines are also stepping up to the plate. NCL has introduced a
recycling program in which some 15,000 gallons of used cooking oil was off-
loaded & converted into useable biodiesel for farming in Florida. Holland
America has a Ship to Shore reusable goods program where linens, dishes,
and mattresses, are donated to charities.
Now, on the other end, most cruise lines do not have the best
environmental track record. They have all endured their share of fines along
the way, including many of the biggest, Carnival, NCL & Royal Caribbean
included. RCI-RCCL pleaded guilty in 1999 to 21 counts of dumping oil &
hazardous chemicals in the ocean. With various plea agreements, the
company paid $18 million in fines to settle those cases. Unfortunately, not all
cruise lines have learned their lesson and changed their practices. There are
some who continue to dump unlawfully into our oceans or pollute our air. If
you talk to Friends of the Earth, (FOE) an environmental activist group in San
Francisco, they will tell you about numerous violations by various cruise lines
in recent years. I do agree with Friends of the Earth on certain items,
especially uniform national regulations of all cruise lines with regard to
sewage and hazardous wastes dumping.
On the subject of hazardous waste, FOE recent report states “Cruise
industry compliance with hazardous waste laws in the US must be seen in
the context of confusion over what regulations apply. The Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) is the primary federal law governing
hazardous waste and its disposal, but it is not entirely clear what elements
apply to cruise ships. RCRA rules that cover small quantity generators (those
that generate 100 kilograms but less than 1,000 kilograms per month) are
less stringent than those of large quantity generators (generate more than
1,000 kilograms per month) and it is unclear whether cruise ships are
classified as large or small generators of hazardous waste. Further it is
unclear whether these limits are applied for each ship individually or whether
they apply to a company’s full complement of ships and are taken together.
This confusion leads to inconsistencies in practice and some would argue to
less stringent record keeping that should be required”. These various
loopholes have been exploited by cruise lines and why I think there is a
need for better and clearer regulatory laws.
FOE has also addressed the issue of air pollution. Cruise ships generate two
sources of air pollution: from their engines, which normally burn dirty fuels
and their incinerators which burn a variety of wastes. Here are some of their
recommendations for this issue:
*Prohibit the use of onboard incinerators within 20 miles of the coast
* Require ships to use marine gas oil, or marine diesel oil with a sulfur
content of no more than 0.5 percent by weight, in all diesel engines within
24 nautical miles of the coast immediately and by 0.1 percent by 2012.
You can go to www.foe.org to see their full report on “Getting a Grip on
Cruise Ship Pollution”.
Overall, do I think the cruise lines have improved their environmental record
and are doing a much better job the past few years? Do I believe national
standards and regulations are necessary for disposal of sewage and
hazardous waste? Would I like to see monitoring programs and inspections
of cruise ships put into place, even if it costs a few bucks more to each
passenger? In my opinion, the answer is YES to all of the above.
Innovation, regulation, monitoring and an active environmental community
are all needed to keep our oceans, shores and marine life safe. I encourage
anyone who is interested in this subject to read and learn as much as you
can. It will continue to be a topic of discussion for many years to come as
more and more travelers take to the high seas for their vacations!
Betsy Scherr can be reached at: betsy.scherr@gmail.com
Tel: 541-385-0499 or 480-306-7635.
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