Due to Australia\u2019s strict biosecurity requirements, waste from international vessels has not been previously recycled.<\/p>\n
With tonnes of clean, segregated recyclables being offloaded from cruise ships \u2013 only to be mixed with general waste destined for landfill \u2013 Fremantle Ports saw the need to advocate for change.<\/p>\n
Pioneering work by Senior Environmental Advisor Rebecca James saw Fremantle establish a process for cruise ship recyclables to be inspected onboard by local Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) biosecurity officers and then released for recycling.<\/p>\n
Waste focus<\/strong><\/p>\n Other key initiatives taken by Fremantle include the development of a Port Waste Management Plan for Ship Generated Waste, based on IMO and ISO standards, to be shared as a model with Ports Australia members and other key stakeholders.<\/p>\n Collaborating with Western Australia\u2019s Department of Water and Environmental Regulations, landfill operators and waste service providers are also working to consolidate biosecurity waste data across the state, while advocating for this information to be included in national waste reporting frameworks.<\/p>\n The port authority is also exploring the approvals process for residual biosecurity waste to be redirected from landfill to Australia\u2019s first waste-to-energy facility, the Kwinana Energy Recovery Project.<\/p>\n It is also advancing wider sustainability standards by providing subject matter expertise to the Green Marine technical committee to consider expanding their port sustainability criteria to include shoreside reception of shipboard-generated waste.<\/p>\n Fellowship benefits<\/strong><\/p>\n Being awarded a prestigious Churchill Fellowship to support further research in this area provided a catalyst for a potential Australia-wide recycling solution.<\/p>\n Rebecca travelled to Singapore, the UK, Europe, the United States and Canada in 2024 to benchmark international best practices in port waste reception and biosecurity waste management.<\/p>\n She visited ports to observe operational practices on the ground, inspecting a variety of different waste facilities, and meeting regulators and policymakers to understand the levers and incentives driving performance in different regions.<\/p>\n Overwhelmingly, Rebecca says that in other developed nations, landfill is being treated as a last resort for maritime waste, unlike the default solution still in place in Australia.<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal was to bring back international learnings to inform development of practices and policies in Australia at a national level. The Fremantle trials informed development of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA)\/DAFF national trials and then input from my Churchill learnings has continued to inform the current DAFF pilot.\u201d<\/p>\n The national Maritime Recycling Risk Assessment Trial led by DAFF and AMSA is supported by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW).<\/p>\n This trial led to further risk assessment under a targeted DAFF pilot that is now facilitating recycling of waste from international ships across eight ports. More than 130 recycling inspections have been conducted, with DAFF now progressing the development of a national policy.<\/p>\n The pilot allows all ships to participate and while some work has occurred through trials on other types of commercial vessels, recycling to date has primarily focused on cruise ships because of the large volumes of waste\/recycling generated on these vessels and their sophisticated onboard waste management and recycling systems..<\/p>\n The current DAFF pilot allows for recycling of very specific waste only, such as aluminium cans, plastic beverage containers, bottles and cups, hard plastic bottles and containers, glass bottles and jars, tin and steel cans, clean cardboard and paper.<\/p>\n Rebecca says broader operational waste streams are also being considered.<\/p>\n \u201cSteps are set out for management of biosecurity risk from organic matter as they are largely generated from kitchen areas. However, there are other significant waste streams onboard (in operational areas as opposed to kitchens) that are currently not covered under the pilot and therefore cannot currently be recycled, or it\u2019s occurring inconsistently across ports \u2013 such as operational scrap metal. Consistent provision of inspection resources, particularly in regional areas, also needs further development.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo industry and government still need to work together to provide clarity and consistency in such areas.\u201d<\/p>\n The DAFF initiative is still in \u201cpilot\u201d\u2019 status but ships\/ports will be able to continue to recycle under this arrangement until a national policy is finalised.<\/p>\n Varied needs<\/strong><\/p>\n Rebecca says ports are very varied and so her Churchill Fellowship learnings from different operational models and jurisdictional policies helped to make the findings and recommendations more relevant. In particular, some of the examples from regional and remote ports have been helpful as strategies are developed going forward.<\/p>\n Directing waste to the Kwinana Energy Recovery Project is also a new development. This is the first of its kind in Australia (a second is currently being constructed in Rockingham in Western Australia. These facilities will be licensed to accept \u201cresidual waste\u201d i.e. that which cannot be recycled.<\/p>\n Rebecca says the WA energy-from-waste industry is currently exploring requirements for accepting biosecurity waste.<\/p>\n \u201cI am advocating that non-recycled biosecurity waste e.g. from ships and airports is diverted from deep-burial landfill to energy-from-waste facilities where available as it is a true \u2018residual\u2019 waste that cannot be used for other purposes due to biosecurity risks.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is particularly relevant due to the organic matter in these waste streams from which the calories could be used to produce energy rather than create methane emissions in landfill. At a national level, I am advocating that biosecurity waste is considered in waste modelling and any facility approvals include acceptance of biosecurity waste.\u201d<\/p>\n A national roundtable event was coordinated by Ports Australia and AMSA in Adelaide in November to bring together stakeholders to further collaborate on solutions on recycling from ships and other port waste reception facility opportunities.<\/p>\n Rebecca presented her work at the Australian Cruise Association Conference and the Australian Waste and Resource Recovery Conference in September. Her efforts were acknowledged by receiving the 2025 Waste Champion Award at the Western Australia Waste Sorted Awards.<\/p>\n She received her official Churchill Fellowship medal at Government House on 6 November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fremantle Ports is leading Australia\u2019s nationwide initiatives to tackle ship-generated waste more sustainably, successfully trialling recycling from cruise ships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":6018,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,1376,8],"tags":[2432,2433],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-6017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-greenport","category-greenport-exclusive","category-projects-initiatives-greenport","tag-port-of-fremantle","tag-waste-recyling"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6017"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6019,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6017\/revisions\/6019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6017"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=6017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}