Disposing of domestic rubbish at sea

I have to admit we do not throw anything overboard, but we only do relatively shirt passages (up to 20 hours). However I don't see a problem with glass, I am not really sure why it is on the list after all isn't sand just glass?
 
If you can't eat it and didn't excrete it (or wipe your arse with it) it stays on board

OK, so our sailing is all coastal at the moment but I see no reason why that should change further offshore
 
Sea_Spray said:
My thought process is that I will always take everything home with me unless I am absolutely convinced that it won't persist for more that a few hours (i.e. that crabs will eat it) and that even then it can't reach ch shore and be unsightly. In practice this means that everything, except very soft plate scrapings (sauces, gravy) goes home.

As regards dumping packaging on long sea passages I'm afraid I don't see any reason to do so. Meat packaging can be washed and then squashed. I have a can crusher mounted to a plank that I use to make empties much smaller. Anyway, if it all fitted in the boat on when full it surely fits in the boat when empty.
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very well said,if everyone keeps hooying tins and jars into the 40metres then it would soon be down to 30
 
A couple of years ago we dried out so that I could scrub the boat. As I waited for the tide to come back in I went for a stroll along the sandbanks and picked up an old clay tobacco pipe. Despite the fact that it had been sloshing up and down the estuary for perhaps a hundred years it was still intact.

I think people are kidding themselves if they think that a bottle or can will quickly return to its "natural" state. If it is returned to shore it can be recycled. If it is consigned to the deep it is lost forever.
 
sailorman said:
It stays intact in 6ooo ft depth
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Doesn't do any damage to the environment there, though, and there's sufficient raw material in the Sahara to meet all our needs for glass for a very long time to come, so I don't think it's anything to get too exercised about.
 
sailorman said:
I am certainly not exercised :encouragement:
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:D Well go and get yer trainers on then...
lol-030.gif
 
Most cans these days are plastic-lined to stop acidic contents, tomato, fruit etc. reacting with the metal. Chucking cans into the drink because they will corrode and plastic won't seems counter intuitive to me.
I don't do oceanic sailing (yet) but I do spend a lot of time on the boat.
The only stuff that goes over the side was either eatable or has been eaten. As others have described any victualling involved disposing excess packaging on shore, especially cardboard.
As a diver I do get hacked off seeing bottles and plastic in otherwise pristine areas of seabed but can understand the "out of sight" mentality. I would just rather not add to the mess.
Any rubbish I do accumulate gets crushed or cut up and put in a thick blue plastic rubbish sack consigned to the dinghy until I am back on shore.
 
Gordonmc said:
As a diver I do get hacked off seeing bottles and plastic in otherwise pristine areas of seabed but can understand the "out of sight" mentality. I would just rather not add to the mess.
Any rubbish I do accumulate gets crushed or cut up and put in a thick blue plastic rubbish sack consigned to the dinghy until I am back on shore.
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TBH that's exactly how I see it. I can't really see much difference between lobbing cans or bottles overboard and spitting chewing gum on the pavement or throwing dog-ends away.
 
Left over sandwiches get thrown overboard, and pretty much everything else gets binned ashore.

Except for boathooks, Tilley hats and tools - they go over the side.
 
maby said:
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.
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You have left overs? I'd sack the cook.
 
Camelia said:
You have left overs? I'd sack the cook.
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My usual cook tends to massively over-cater. The leftovers certainly aren't left because the food's not tasty!

(Partly it's because of not wanting to end up short, and partly because he doesn't want a fridge and locker full of sloppy open half-used packets, so tends to use a whole packet every time.)

Pete
 
I'm not a voyager. However my instinct is that if I could be bothered to take it onboard, I can take it back again.
I absolutely abhor those who drop litter and worse, tie it up in a carrier (like that makes it OK) before throwing it into a field, beck or on the lake.
 
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