EU backs ‘polluter pays’ ship waste approach

The Transport Committee of the European Parliament has adopted the Meissner report on the Port Reception Facilities giving a mandate to the Rapporteur to start negotiations with the Council to finalise the text of the new law.

“[The policy] encourages ships to limit the waste at the source by preventing ships to deliver unreasonable amounts of waste without paying for it. We believe that the text adopted strikes the right balance between efficiency and responsibility and strengthens the ‘polluter pays’ principle.”

Polluter pays

But she added that ESPO regrets that the Parliament decided to make rebates mandatory for green management of waste on board of ships.

She said that ports believe the decision to give rebates must be taken at port level because they are generally applied to address the local environmental challenges.

“In some areas, waste pollution is a great environmental concern while in others it is air quality and emissions. Furthermore, mandatory rebates disregard the existence of different business and governance models in ports across Europe,” she said.

ESPO backs the ‘polluter pays’ principle by discouraging the delivery of unreasonable quantities of garbage, including dangerous waste, for a fixed fee.

The principle aims to make sure that ships deliver their garbage at every port call and don’t skip waste deliveries to save time.

It also aims to safeguard ports having to pay the extra costs of delivering amounts of garbage that exceed the normal quantities generated between two ship calls.