During the 2020 GREEN4SEA Athens Forum, Mr. Giorgos Kyriazis, Associate (Founder, Ships Drinking Water Leaders), P Ship Systems Ltd, talked about stopping plastic bottled water for vessels, explaining that there are field-tested, autonomous and robust solutions for all vessel areas (i.e. kitchen, engine room, dining room, bridge, etc.) covering all regulations, using ship’s existing infrastructure to provide instant metallic fresh drinking/cooking water, being also characterised by reputable oil majors as Best Practice for Drinking Water on companies fleet on audits such as TMSA.
There are many challenges onboard vessels, regarding potable water.
- Plenty Of evaporated Water Generation On Ships
- Water Storage Tanks – Regular Maintenance, Still Water, Stirring from vessels movements, etc.
- Water Pipes Of Different Infrastructure/Types Flowing Through
- Yellowish Tap Water even on fairly new vessels (N/Bs)
- Water Lab Tests – every 6 months as per MLC2006, etc.
The plastic water bottle is almost the only usable drinking water solution onboard so far. A major issue for shipping companies worldwide is the implementation of banning plastic onboard after several countries have agreed to, such us India and Kuwait while China maybe next to come along with European countries. Yet, the choice of plastic bottle onboard has many quality issues and dangerous facts behind, for all officers and crewmembers onboard.
Needless to mention that from various researches implemented globally on plastic bottled water, 85-90% of production relates to the bottling of some public water after being filtered mainly a little bit so as to remove chlorine…
Additionally it is known that the exposure of plastic bottled water to sun light creates deterioration that make it useless in degree of risk, apart from the recent researches which proved that bottled water inside plastic bottles bring high microplastic quantities which are harmful for our health.
And it’s very expensive, not only to procure it and to get in on-board but also to discharge it too, as waste management charges must be paid in every single port for every single vessel, including the expensive big special bags needed on-board each vessel to place inside the compressed plastic bottles and so on.
Furthermore, we need to keep in mind the last ISWAN Dehydration Survey, which amongst various findings, found out that people onboard distrust water due to the taste and the appearance. While there are many incidents reported worldwide to medical centers from crewmembers suffering from kidney issues.
We have various incidents and reports on plastic bottled water such as:
- WHO’s 2018 Health Review following Fredonia’s N.Y. State University
- Nestle’s lawsuit on defrauding consumers by filling bottles of its Poland Spring water with ordinary groundwater (Reuters) by the New Haven, Connecticut-based judge
- 30 billion particles / 1.8 trillion released into the ocean and mistaken for food by zooplankton and fish (ocean-protection group Ocean Wise)
- Dr. Kieran Cox’ conservative estimation that people drinking bottled water consume 164K-211K of microplastics annually/ First Study (Victoria University)
Plastic bottled water is not only unhealthy as it’s been proven but covers nil of all below shipping industry’s regulations on drinking water:
Regarding shipping industry’s regulations, audits and guidelines for bottled water onboard, we have the following:
- Directive from World Health Organization, the International Health Regulation and the European Drinking Water Directive the latter being the strictest of all.
- A guide to ship sanitation in accordance with MLC 2006 and the World Health Organization.
- Some audits by some reputable oil majors in shipping companies’ fleets, referring to best practices, such as having alternative systems onboard for producing drinking water. We have been advised by those very reputable oil major as best practice to have onboard for drinking up fresh metallic water.
Above text is an edited version of Mr. Giorgos Kyriazis’s presentation during the 2020 GREEN4SEA Athens Forum.
You may view his presentation herebelow
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
Giorgos Kyriazis, Associate, P Ship Systems Ltd
Giorgos is a problem/cost solver, goal-driven international executive, passionate about protecting the sea, seafarers and the environment through the latest environmental, health and safety initiatives, ensuring compliance with all industry regulations. He delivers value, fully covering what’s-in-it-for-me, with 25+ years of hands-on experience in marketing and business development in the B2B environment in the EMEAs. region, operating in demanding working environments. Always open to new challenges, with a can-do attitude. He has held numerous senior positions in the Service, Security and ICT industries, paying attention to his continuous personal development, a Lancaster University (UK) 1995 Management Science graduate.