Disposing of domestic rubbish at sea

[MoodySabre]

Eat an apple whilst toodling on the river - core over the side.

Banana skin likewise? Do they breakdown in sea water?

Middle of the North Sea - chuck a can or glass bottle overboard, it sinks who cares in 40metres?

Cardboard packet would soon break up - oh maybe bleach and dye in the processing not such a good idea.

No plastic overboard anywhere anytime.

What, where and why. And what do you do?

 

[Rigger Mortice]

Apple cores and the obvious stuff like bread. Output from the heads

Nothing else.

I have been tempted to sling SWMBO overboard on a couple of occasions.

 

[maby]

In the river or close to shore, my inclination would be to take everything home - anything dumped overboard is likely to be washed up on a visible shore somewhere.

In deep water, I certainly would not have an issue with dropping glass containers overboard - it's just going back to where it came from and in a cleaner condition, if anything. Small amounts of food waste similar - it will either be eaten by some passing animal or biodegrade quickly. As you say, plastic is a big no-no.

 

[[70521]]

Everything, apart from the heads output, comes home.

 

[prv]

On the yacht we generally bag everything except food waste (ie plate and pan scrapings) that will dissolve (ie no skins, cores, etc).

My dad described smashing glass bottles on the anchor in the 80s, before throwing the bits overboard. The idea I guess was to prevent creatures getting stuck in the bottle - a piece of broken glass is basically just a funny-shaped pebble.

When I used to sail on Stavros, deckhands' duties included handling the garbage. Less than 12 miles or anywhere in the Channel we bagged everything, outside that we ditched everything except plastic. Food, tins, glass, scrap metal, wood, galvanised wire, rags, hemp marline (but not poly rope), even an old toilet once. This all in accordance with the rules - position and approximate volume of waste was officially logged for each dump. The crew were still required to use the bins and not chuck anything overboard themselves - the idea being to avoid instilling bad habits for when we got back into coastal waters. Only the deckhands did the ditching each evening.

The official rules are in the MARPOL convention ("Maritime Pollution") and I think they've changed recently, probably outlawing our habits as described in the previous paragraph.

Pete

 

[maby]

Everything, apart from the heads output, comes home.

It really does depend on the duration of your passage, doesn't it? If you are coast hopping and never away from shore for more than a day or two, then it is feasible and environmentally responsible to bring your garbage home. If you are on a transatlantic crossing taking a month or so, carrying food waste with you is unnecessary and not particularly hygienic - dumping the leftovers of last night's supper overboard is not going to do any harm - something will eat it long before it reaches shore.

 

[onesea]

What the IMO say....

If glass or cans are going over please make sure it sinks, to much ends beaches.

Give or take a tea bag or 2, plates scrapings and similar I probably adhere to this.

 

[michael_w]

On ocean passages everything biodegradeable goes swimming ie: waste food, glass, paper etc. Plastic and tetrapack gets cut up into thin strips with a pair of scissors and then the resultant strips stuffed into an empty 2 litre plastic bottle. It's quite surprising how much you can stuff in. Once full, they are stored in the anchor locker for disposal ashore.

 

[Elessar]

Eat an apple whilst toodling on the river - core over the side.

Banana skin likewise? Do they breakdown in sea water?

Middle of the North Sea - chuck a can or glass bottle overboard, it sinks who cares in 40metres?

Cardboard packet would soon break up - oh maybe bleach and dye in the processing not such a good idea.

No plastic overboard anywhere anytime.

What, where and why. And what do you do?

If it has been or can be eaten, over the side.
Glass and metal over the side offshore.
Everything else comes ashore.

 

[bitbaltic]

On ocean passages everything biodegradeable goes swimming ie: waste food, glass, paper etc. Plastic and tetrapack gets cut up into thin strips with a pair of scissors and then the resultant strips stuffed into an empty 2 litre plastic bottle. It's quite surprising how much you can stuff in. Once full, they are stored in the anchor locker for disposal ashore.

Genuine question, in what way is glass biodegradeable? I can only imagine it being recycled by subduction (in some parts of the ocean, 200 million years hence). What makes it biodegrade if people are always digging up glassware from antiquity all over the place including e.g from the bottom of the Med?

 

[maby]

Genuine question, in what way is glass biodegradeable? I can only imagine it being recycled by subduction (in some parts of the ocean, 200 million years hence). What makes it biodegrade if people are always digging up glassware from antiquity all over the place including e.g from the bottom of the Med?

I did do a double take at that - surely the argument for glass is that it is really just melted sand - throw it back in and in a few hundred years it will be back to its original state.

 

[MoodySabre]

Thanks Onesea - I'll know what to do with the carcasse of the ships parrot when it dies......

 

[Hypocacculus]

take only fish; leave only wake.

 

[bitbaltic]

I did do a double take at that - surely the argument for glass is that it is really just melted sand - throw it back in and in a few hundred years it will be back to its original state.

It's not going to degrade until it encounters temperatures sufficient to melt silica, ie temperatures at which rocks or sediment turn liquid. This will not ever be found on the ocean floors (which are geologically cool) until they are subducted at continental margins. In the Atlantic, for instance, there are not presently any such margins, so a glass lobbed overboard will stay in its current form until the plates reverse direction and maybe for millions of years after that. The oceans are big of course, and it's hardly an issue, but still it would be best not to lob things overboard on the assumption that they will be dissolved in something referable to a human lifetime. Glass debris will be on and in the ocean floor for potentially hundreds of millions of years.

 

[mjcoon]

If glass or cans are going over please make sure it sinks, to much ends beaches.

I've often thought that charter yachts should come equipped with can crushers. Not for disposal over the side but for easier bagging-up... (Using lots of cans; who, me?)

Mike.

 

[bitbaltic]

That's a great idea.

 

[Downsman]

Coastal, everything except food scraps goes in a builder's rubble bag and goes ashore. Ocean crossings then all plastics, synthetic rope ends etc: goes in a bag. Glass gets broken first then over the side. A tip I learned from an old Dutch voyager I met in Playa Blanca, he kept an old pair of pliers hanging by the galley stove and when I asked about them he explained that on an ocean crossing such as we were both about to make, he would hold an empty food can in the flame of the galley cooker until it was hot and discoloured before ditching it. He said ( forum scientists stand by to squawk ) that destroying the protective 'tinning' accelerated the decomposition of the tin can. I've no idea if that is correct but I've done it ever since.

 

[prv]

I've often thought that charter yachts should come equipped with can crushers. Not for disposal over the side but for easier bagging-up.

What's wrong with just stamping on the cans?

Pete

 

[bitbaltic]

Coastal, everything except food scraps goes in a builder's rubble bag and goes ashore. Ocean crossings then all plastics, synthetic rope ends etc: goes in a bag. Glass gets broken first then over the side. A tip I learned from an old Dutch voyager I met in Playa Blanca, he kept an old pair of pliers hanging by the galley stove and when I asked about them he explained that on an ocean crossing such as we were both about to make, he would hold an empty food can in the flame of the galley cooker until it was hot and discoloured before ditching it. He said ( forum scientists stand by to squawk ) that destroying the protective 'tinning' accelerated the decomposition of the tin can. I've no idea if that is correct but I've done it ever since.

Depending on what it's made of, the can will rust (oxidize) and disintegrate- provided the sea floor which it lands on is not below the redox boundary. So no bad idea, but i doubt the can is made of tin nowadays anyway.

 

[Vara]

Nowadays nothing goes overboard, but then I only do short trips.