Abstract
Ship-generated nutrient-rich waste sources, including food waste and sewage water, contribute to eutrophication and deoxygenation of marine ecosystems. This chapter aims to discuss the characteristics of these waste and wastewater sources, review current ship-generated organic waste and wastewater regulations, inventory conventional management and treatment practices, and identify future perspectives for more sustainable nutrient-rich waste and wastewater management on board of ships. According to regulations, untreated food waste and sewage can generally be discharged into the open sea at more than 12 nautical miles from the nearest land, hence this is currently a common practice. However, special restrictions apply in special designated areas such as the Baltic Sea, where food waste must be comminuted/grounded and nutrients need to be removed from the sewage prior to discharge at 12 nautical miles from the nearest land. Current research looks at the valorisation of these waste and wastewater sources through anaerobic digestion, composting and/or nutrient recovery.
Highlights
Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus can cause devastating impacts on the aquatic environment
Food waste is currently often discharged into the open sea without any treatment at more than 12 nautical miles from the nearest land
Sewage water can be discharged into the sea without any treatment at more than 12 nautical miles
Summary
Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus can cause devastating impacts on the aquatic environment. Nutrients can enter seas and oceans through discharge of wastewater and food waste generated either at land or on board of ships, aquaculture practices or fertilizer run-off from agricultural land [3]. Such excessive nutrient discharges into the marine environment, combined with ocean warming due to climate change has resulted in ocean deoxygenation [3, 4]. Marine policy stimulates transport of cargo by sea, thereby further increasing the number of people (staff) traveling over sea [10, 11] This increase in maritime transportation comes with a global increasing amount of ship-generated waste. This chapter may point out opportunities to reverse human-accelerated eutrophication of marine ecosystems
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