What do you throw overboard?

For interest, here are the marpol rules I referred to above. As mentioned, I think these have now been superseded with a much more restrictive set, but these seem sensible to me.

424px-MARPOL_73-78_Instructions.png


The "special areas" referred to are:

  • Mediterranean Sea
  • Baltic Sea
  • Black Sea
  • Red Sea
  • "Gulfs" area
  • North Sea
  • Antarctic area (south of latitude 60 degrees south)
  • Wider Caribbean region including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea

(note I was mistaken about the Channel being on this list)

On Stavros we tended to simplify this to

  • > 25 miles: everything except plastic
  • 25 - 12 miles: food waste only
  • < 12 miles: bag everything


Pete
 
Last edited:
prv said:
Never done any yacht voyages long enough to preclude taking all gash ashore. Similarly, such voyages are mostly in coastal waters where marpol says no dumping anything. Only thing I tend to send overboard is liquid food (soup, gravy, custard, etc) left in the saucepan after dinner. Small bin bags, each one tied up after dinner each day, then all stored together in a big tough outer bag. Admittedly haven't figured out yet where this will go on the new boat. Possibly the anchor locker?
Click to expand...

Best avoided. The bag splits, the anchor locker drains become blocked, the locker fills in a seaway and eventually water finds its way over the top of the bulkhead and into the forepeak, which results in a soggy bed for someone.

Never actually managed it myself, but have seen the results.
 
Simondjuk said:
Best avoided. The bag splits, the anchor locker drains become blocked, the locker fills in a seaway and eventually water finds its way over the top of the bulkhead and into the forepeak, which results in a soggy bed for someone.

Never actually managed it myself, but have seen the results.
Click to expand...

Nice :)

Our anchor locker has a completely sealed fibreglass bulkhead, part of the hull structure. So whatever happens it won't be joining anybody in bed.

If I chose this route (and with an aft cabin we have very limited cockpit locker space, so I may well do) my plan was to fix some plastic netting of some kind to one side of the anchor locker, to restrain the bag. My aim was to prevent it getting mixed up with the hanging chain, which is over the other side under the windlass, but it would also stop the bag flying around and hopefully prevent it rupturing. When I say "tough bag" I mean it, the ones sold for use with hydraulic garbage compactors. They're not easy to split.

Ultimately, if I was going to have a ruptured garbage bag anywhere on board, I think my anchor locker would be the least worst place.

Pete
 
The most I have spent at sea were five days, even in that case we have taken all the rubbish with us. For convenience we had a black bin bag hanging over the transom on the bathing platform. Once the galley's bin was full it was moved in there. Once arrived we disposed of the rubbish using the marina facilities. I would have felt bad dumping anything in the sea whilst watched by the dolphins following, or even when not there knowing that it was their habitat.
 
Last edited:
To my mind the only reason not to chuck glass overboard when well offshore would be if there were the likelihood of accessible recycling drops ashore which usually there isn't out here. Obviously bottles should be made sinkable. Cans are chucked, too, after thorough puncturing.
 
capnsensible said:
Agree. Have made a number of voyages over 3 weeks on yachts. To retain waste that's heaving in a tropical climate will be at a large health risk to the crew. Stand fast plastics.

It's better to arrive with no gash but all of your crew. Less fuss!
Click to expand...
Same here, almost everything but never plastic. Logic being that an occasional
tin or bottle does less overall harm in 4,000m deep water than it does in an island's rubbish dump.
 
Can I throw a spanner in the works?

It is fine to take all of your rubbish with you and leave ashore but where does it go then? We found that on more than one Caribbean and Bahamian island it just gets thrown in the sea at the back of the island, sometimes it gets burnt, sometimes it doesn't. If you really want to make sure that it doesn't end up in the sea then a bonfire on the beach on the low water mark. Or compress it and hold on until you get to a port capable of dealing with the rubbish.

I'll own up to lobbing a gearbox overboard in oceanic depths and regularly all food, glass and tins get deep sixed.
 
On ocean passages: Everything, bar plastics and similar ie, tetra packs etc. The plastics get rinsed in seawater, then cut into strips and stuffed into 2l empty PET bottles. It's quite surprising how much rubbish you can cram in.

Depending on the jurisdiction you are landing in, it may be sensible to tell the odd white lie about your rubbish. Friends arrivng in the USA from Bermuda rashly addmitted to the Homeland Security guy they had three bags of rubbish on board. This required the attendance of a special crew, complete with Hazardous Material suits and an enormous bill. The argument that most of the stuff had come from the USA didn't count.
 
What not to throw overboard

http://www.imo.org/OurWork/Environm...ex v discharge requirements for website 3.pdf

Here is the latest - in force 1 Jan 2013 (Googled it first attempt)

Plastic is an absolute pain. I still have part of a plastic bag between one blade base on the Brunton's auto prop. Haven't got round to dismantling it yet.
Had a plastic bag in the toilet SW intake - blocked it solidly. Could only clear it from outboard.

Cheers,

Michael.
 
We try to keep everything bagged and lob it into the rib (on davits) until landfall, the only drawback being seagulls if a bag is damaged.
However, in the old days I believed aluminium cans were OK to dump as they would become homes to hermit crabs and then eventually fizz away to nothing - like aluminium deck fittings.
Some food bits - eg. melon skins, were frowned upon as they seem to last forever in brine. NEVER plastic or oily stuff.
I also believe offshore winds contribute greatly to the plastic bits floating around the coast - it's not all us boaties' fault.
 
While marinas can be expected to have waste disposal facilities, some small coastal communities do not and they really don't want yachties' detritus. If you are cruising keep it with you until you reach a marina or larger harbour.
 
Billjratt said:
I also believe offshore winds contribute greatly to the plastic bits floating around the coast - it's not all us boaties' fault.
Click to expand...

Very true. I get lots of wind-blown plastic rubbish in my garden that I certainly didn't drop there. A much larger amount must be blowing off the shore. In fact I imagine these days this is a larger source of plastic in the sea than leisure boating - nobody I know would throw plastic overboard, whereas I see lots of plastic litter blowing around on shore, and this is a coastal town.

Apparently another source (more in the Far East than here) is the granulated raw plastic destined to be moulded into manufactured things. When spilled, this stuff tends to end up going down drains and eventually into rivers and the sea. "Nurdles" is the word to google for.

Pete
 
webcraft said:
I know a man who has deep-sixed not one but two washing machines . . .

For ourselves, we wil finally be disposing of our ancient mouldering flares over the side this year, as all sensible attempts to find another solution have failed.
Click to expand...

Last month I handed my 15yr out of date flares to Stornoway CG, no questions asked.
As if you needed a reason to visit :)
 
Billjratt said:
We try to keep everything bagged and lob it into the rib (on davits) until landfall, the only drawback being seagulls if a bag is damaged.
However, in the old days I believed aluminium cans were OK to dump as they would become homes to hermit crabs and then eventually fizz away to nothing - like aluminium deck fittings.
Some food bits - eg. melon skins, were frowned upon as they seem to last forever in brine. NEVER plastic or oily stuff.
I also believe offshore winds contribute greatly to the plastic bits floating around the coast - it's not all us boaties' fault.
Click to expand...

As we mainly sail in the Clyde. we too try and take everything home - except perhaps a few food scraps. But just to add to the Melon skin thing, I remember being told (when I was a lad) that orange peel does not decompose readily. We were always told to take it home when walking, as it wouldn't rot even if buried.
 
We regularly have beach barbecues usually followed up with a decent driftwood fire. It always astounds people when they see their beer, soft drink cans and disposable barbecue trays burn to dust. The only bit left after raking over the fire is the steel gauze which can be rolled in a tight ball and deep sixed on the way home.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top