What waste do you chuck overboard on passage ? honest answers please

[Abigail]

It may be what 'the locals' do, but that doesn't necessarily make it okay for visitors to do it, or indeed for them to do it. Not only the points that SolarNeil makes about the systems that local people have developed over years that you can b...r up bynot really understanding them - but also what you might be throwing away instead; eg food waste that isn't eaten by local insects, materials that don't degrade in that environment and context, stuff that could actually be well used by local people who are living in a subsistence economy.

The fact that poor places have ineffective disposal methods for waste generated by people used to richer economies does not make it ok to simply dump your litter and sail on.

 

[captainslarty]

Exactly Abigail, that why it goes over the side, deep sixed.. The solution to plastic, is to, as others have rightly mentioned, try to cut down on it, difficult, but a reduction can certainly be made.

Those that carry all their rubbish to far away places are probably adding to ecological problems, not assisting, a double edged sword..

 

[ParaHandy]

Re: What waste do you chuck overboard on passage ? honest answers plea

Greetings me auld trout ... how was the choo choo ?

don't think anybody's read yer post .. and they ought'er. st lucia, destination for ARC etc, dumps it out to sea. st martin stacks it at end of runway so 747 lands and blows it away (observation from topless bar), normally do same as st lucia ... our tinnies were, apparently, spotted by returning ARC bod ("shocked" of hamble) west of Horta

 

[jimlagos]

Even oil is organic , and small quantities are soon consumed by bacteria. Food scraps ( if any ) are also soon consumed. Glass bottles soon become homes for little creatures. So I agree that some plastic items should be carried to land, but most other refuse is actually feeding the environment. Mr Brown wants to tax non friendly items of rubbish, but then orders more atom bombs! Very Eco-friendly, I'm sure!!!

 

[demonboy]

Re: What waste do you chuck overboard on passage ? honest answers plea

A marine biologist friend of mine was horrified to learn that I'd thrown cans over the side. He wasn't so concerned about the tin itself, but the printed label that is full of toxic inks.

The solution to this is to take the labels off and write, with permanent marker, the contents of the tin on its lid. Prevents your bilges getting clogged when the cans get wet and avoids spotted dick and baked beans for breakfast too.

 

[whipper_snapper]

Re: What waste do you chuck overboard on passage ? honest answers plea

[ QUOTE ]
The solution to this is to take the labels off ....

[/ QUOTE ]

and then do what with them?

I am a card-carrying tree hugger but that makes no sense to me.

 

[Anonymous]

Re: What waste do you chuck overboard on passage ? honest answers plea

[ QUOTE ]
A marine biologist friend of mine was horrified to learn that I'd thrown cans over the side. He wasn't so concerned about the tin itself, but the printed label that is full of toxic inks.

[/ QUOTE ]Doesn't feel quite right to me. The ocean is very big for the tiny amounts of toxins that could be present in label ink, on the quantities of cans we are talking about.

There is the point about unsightly littering quite apart from environmental damage.

 

[demonboy]

Re: What waste do you chuck overboard on passage ? honest answers plea

You recycle them of course (if possible). As a "card-carrying tree hugger" you should know that the recycling process extracts the inks from paper before being reused, so if it is possible to recycle the wrappers then you should.

Lemain - to say the ocean is very big for tiny amounts of toxins is a little short-sighted. If everyone thought like that.......

 

[Anonymous]

Re: What waste do you chuck overboard on passage ? honest answers plea

[ QUOTE ]
Lemain - to say the ocean is very big for tiny amounts of toxins is a little short-sighted. If everyone thought like that.......

[/ QUOTE ]If 'everyone' lived on a yacht, then you would have a point but the fact is that only a tiny proportion of people travel by private yacht. It is vital for us to behave in a responsible and considerate way, both for the integrity of the environment as well as the amenity value, but we must not overlook the fact that a small amount of 'pollution' can be absorbed by nature in a short time. If everyone in an anchorage dumped their tins in the sea the real problem would, I suggest, be the loss of amenity rather than the toxins in the printed labels. After all, how many tins a day will the yachties throw over? Many will dispose of them ashore, in any case, as we do.

 

[whipper_snapper]

Re: What waste do you chuck overboard on passage ? honest answers plea

I agree. Microscopic quantities of toxins from ink are never going to be an issue, they will quickly be broken down. And in most cases the alternative is a landfill or a fire which release toxins to soil or air

And I am afraid that:

[ QUOTE ]
The solution to this is to take the labels off and write, with permanent marker

[/ QUOTE ]

The permanent maker deposits erm, ink. And xylene.

 

[tcm]

Most stuff goes over the side with our lot. Fenders, mooring lines, radar equipment, motoring cones, winch handles, fishing gear, a few hundred dogends, the lot. Sometimes i stash our rubbish in a bag to avoid a health hazard to the fish, but then I often slip a bit and oops it goes over the side. Damn. Much better of course to take it to our destination whih is usually a small island where they just love me and others taking tons of crap ashore every year and is somehow much better for the Environment (capital E, heavy accent on all syllables, and simultaneous Blairist furrowed brow). I have never dumpd a membr of crew ovrboard, so that's a good thing innit?

 

[demonboy]

Re: What waste do you chuck overboard on passage ? honest answers plea

I take your points. Of course one could argue that we can hardly call ourselves green - think of the production of boats, with the transmissions generated from GRP production, etc...

That aside, as long as we all make a little bit of an effort.......

 

[tcm]

ah but whatever these ecowarriors say, the boat's plastic and that get's chucked in the water and just bobs around all ovr the place. Never deteriorates and they all look a right mess cluttering up the shoreline, see? Perception innit?