The port authority has also had to invest in a combined heat and power unit to burn barked timber used as dunnage, to prevent pests such as bark beetle from escaping into the environment.

Mr Kerr points out that, because the port authority can negotiate a central waste disposal contract, it can secure competitive rates,hence the quite low level of the charge to vessel operators.For other types of waste, involving oil or paint, ships’ agents are provided with a list of outside contractors who undertake the work privately.

“At the Port of Tyne, we are fortunate in that there is a choice of outside waste management contractors given the port’s location in a large industrial area. Ports in more remote areas have limited supply in this respect and have to pay more,”he reveals.

Given that ports in the UK are covered by a mixture of landside and maritime legislation, it is difficult to implement a good recycle policy, laments Mr Kerr. If, for example, waste remains in the port for more than seven days, it effectively becomes the property (and therefore responsibility) of the port authority.The sorting and retrieval of certain types of segregated waste on a weekly basis could therefore prove uneconomic.