What Do Cruise Ships Do With Human Waste

What do cruise ships do with human waste.

What do cruise ships do with human waste. Illustration by Lucy Engelman. According to the Cruise Lines International Association its member Ships are mandated to treat sewage on board ships before discharging either at. With thousands of people onboard a ship there is a need for a sophisticated approach to managing where everything goes once people are done with it from human waste to recycling to leftover food.

Most modern cruise ships have a 4 stage sewage treatment plant that produces drinking quality water in the final stage. Cruise ships pollute the air we breathe Cruise ships are also responsible for significant air pollution from the dirty fuel they burn which can lead to serious human health problems especially in port communities. Federal law requires that cruise ships only dump treated wastewater if they are within three nautical miles of shore.

Cruise ships cannot afford to fall short of food therefore food is cooked in bulk. 21000 gallons of human sewage one ton of solid waste garbage 170000 gallons of wastewater from showers sinks and laundry 6400 gallons of oily bilge water from the massive engines 25 pounds of batteries fluorescent lights medical wastes and expired chemicals and 8500 plastic. The ship has a few tanks that are refered to as contaminated holding tanks they work a lot like a septic tank in rural areas the waste is treated with chemicals to break it down then it is pumped over the side way out at sea or if they can in port they will hook up sewage lines and pump it into the local sewage system in whatever port they are.

Friends of the Earth points out that an average cruise ship at sea creates more soot in one day than a million cars. Cruise ship passengers might think theyre leaving it all. Even while at dock cruise ships often run dirty diesel engines to provide electrical power to passengers and crew.

Likewise do cruise ships dump human waste in the ocean. Indeed in 2016 Princess Cruises was fined a record 32 million for the. One popular iteration with more than 30000 shares was posted by Facebook user Mena Anjos on 19 January 2019 along with the caption translated via Google You know what.

Waste water is the second biggest part of onboard waste. The Bottom Line is that International regulations do allow cruise ships to discharge sewage and certain types of garbage at sea. A single large cruise ship will emit over five tonnes of NOX emissions and 450kg of ultrafine particles a day.