rubbish post

zefender

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For a first time transat later this year, the question of rubbish has been raised amongst the crew. For three weeks or so, we'll be consuming loads of food and wondering what to do with its associated packaging.

I feel very uncomfortable about chucking any stuff overboard environmentally - maybe OK about food perishables - but the thought of storing increasingly stinky cans, cartons etc isn't very pleasant either - and it's trickier to store than in original unopened form. I can foresee split bags all over the place as well as the problem of arriving in St. Lucia with a load of rubbish that the island probably doesn't want.

We've looked at can crushers (but somebody told me that empty cans make lovely little houses for fish to protect themselves in on the seabed). We've looked at buying those plastic water bottles that concetina when empty and considering what we buy in terms of its packaging.


So, what do/would you do?

1, Throw overboard all waste food or keep it?
2, Throw stuff like paper based products overboard or keep it?
3, What about tins, cans?
4, Plastics?
5, Wash everything in seawater before storing it to minimise the problem?

I've no idea what the St.Lucians do with rubbish but supposing they just stick on a boat and take it out to sea and dump it in shallower water than I would on the passage? Even if they do, can I walk away feeling suitably 'green' because that's not my responsibility, but theirs?

I get the feeling people don't admit they throw stuff overboard 'cos it's not very nice really. It's different on a passage of just a couple of days or so but for longer periods, rubbish becomes a bit of a problem.
 

zefender

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It was noticeable how quiet they seem to be on it on a seminar recently. I've also heard stories of people following a trail of floating cans and other detritus all the way across, which is a bit disgusting really.
 

KevB

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tow your tender about 10mtres behind you and use it as a dustbin. Easy to wash out once you have found a decent place to dump your rubbish.
 

tcm

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fab post

this isn't covered much in the er "blue" water sailing books is it? First off i would raise your excellent issue with the arc orgainsers.

On a much lower level, we had the same prob in the caribbean. I have no prob chucking vaguley eatable/rotttable stuff overboard, and we washed the remaining stuff like cans in buckets of seawater and bashed down the tins on the anchor. As result you get nice clean rubbish that doesn't stink. But we still had too much in a few days.

It's not realistic to save the whole lot, and er any fish two miles down don't need houses. So it think i wd forget the cleaning thing and try to make small sinkable parcels with tins cans as far as possible.

I definiately avoid chucking big plastic bags overboard of course as these will bung up someones engines.

in answer to your questions

1 yes, throw waste food
2 not sure, minimise this
3 tins and cans will sink to make the aforementioned fish houses, which at least make you feel ok i suppose. Are they stainless steel cans cos otherwise the poor fish houses must be going rusty? Hoiw about chucking a couple of tins of hammerite overboard which i'm sure would be appreciated?
4. plastics not at all sure.
5. yep wash it if you store it.
 
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This was a subject often discussed amounst the cruisers I met and the consensus was that plastic and paper with a plastic coating was not thrown overboard but stored in plastic bags in the anchor locker for disposal later. Glass and tins were thrown overboard as long as your depth is greater than 1000 metres, because even over a hundred years or so, they will degrade without any enviromental inpact.
 

AlexL

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I think the responsible thing to do is to remove as much packagings as poss before you go and then Throw anything organic over the side as it will be biodegradable. Wash tins and plastics and then crush and store, and then throw away responsibly when you arrive. Tins and plastics should crush fairly small.
Whatever you do please, please, please do not throw plastics over the side, and please do everything you can to discourage this behaviour in others.
 

Peppermint

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Re:Keep it.

Anything discharged into the sea is going to break an international law.

That being said I'm sure a lot goes over the wall in the dead of night. If your a 100 miles off with soft organic rubbish to loose how much harm can it do?

I've seen a manual garbage compactor somewhere. Not a big thing but gets more crud into less space.
 

snowleopard

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the generally accepted rules for voyagers are-

food waste - over the side
cans - puncture so they sink
bottles - fill with water so they sink
paper - over side as long as not plasticised
plastics & cardboard drink cartons - wash well, compact and store

all this assumes you are WELL offshore and there is no land in your lee for a good distance. nothing goes over in territorial waters except what goes down the sink drain.

one skipper we knew used to cut up plastic into little strips which he shoved into 2 litre drink bottles. after 3 weeks with 2 on board his total waste was 5 bottles stuffed with these scraps.
 

Ships_Cat

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The NZ Maritime Safety Authority have a good little publication on dumping of rubbish at http://www.msa.govt.nz/Publications/publications/Dumping.pdf. It reflects the MARPOL requirements so you should be safe following it for international waters. Obviously, the local requirements it states for sewage and rubbish inside NZ territorial waters will be different elsewhere.

Some countries require the maintaining of a garbarge management plan and discharge log on their larger pleasure vessels and/or signage on smaller ones (USA and NZ both do, NZ requirement is in the publication, we place the required sign on our galley rubbish container and I have seen the same approach on USA vessels).

It seems that some posters are unaware that it is illegal to dump plastic anywhere at all at sea if your country of registration is a MARPOL signatory /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif.

We find that without taking any advance actions such as removing packing, etc before we leave that we (2 POB plus 1 CatOB) can hold all non food waste rubbish easily on board for many weeks, and I reckon would only become a problem after months at sea without dumping. We use sack sized plastic rubbish bags (strong type), tie their handles together when full, and bungee them to the shrouds through the handles (but our boat is not like a submarine and does not sail gunwale under).

John
 

john_morris_uk

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Re:Keep it.

[ QUOTE ]
Anything discharged into the sea is going to break an international law.

[/ QUOTE ]

This simply isn't true!! Look at the MARPOL regs. What you can discharge into the sea is a function of size, material, and how far off shore you are. The regs are too long and complex to repeat here.

I always feel bad about throwing stuff into the sea, but even my conscience is clear when sinking tin cans in three thousand metres of water when you are miles and miles off the coast.
 
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