The European Sea ports Organisation (ESPO) welcomes the proposals by the European Parliament on the review of the Waste Reception Facilities Directive. The proposals are aiming to better protect the marine environment and decrease the administrative burden for stakeholders. The Draft Report will be discussed in the Transport Committee meeting of 10 July.
ESPO welcomed in particular proposals the definition of catering waste which would increase the quantities of recycled plastics and contribute to the targets of the European Plastics Strategy.
[smlsubform prepend=”GET THE SAFETY4SEA IN YOUR INBOX!” showname=false emailtxt=”” emailholder=”Enter your email address” showsubmit=true submittxt=”Submit” jsthanks=false thankyou=”Thank you for subscribing to our mailing list”]
However, ESPO believes that the ‘polluter pays’ principle needs to be strengthened. Introducing a fee system where ships would deliver unreasonable quantities of garbage, including dangerous waste for a fixed fee would be a severe divergence from the ‘polluter pays’ principle, as it risks to discourage reducing waste at the source.
ESPO’s Secretary General, Isabelle Ryckbost, noted:
Overall, the report pursues the objectives of the circular economy and aims to reduce administrative burden for authorities and stakeholders. We strongly believe however that the ‘polluter pays’ principle needs to be better reflected in the new Directive. We cannot accept a regime whereby ships are not incentivised to limit waste at the source and ports have to carry the costs of delivering unreasonable amounts.
Additionally, ESPO opposed to the automatic reduction for green ships. Any green reduction, if not corresponding to a real cost reduction, will weigh the port authority. It said that “any mandatory green rebates for waste, as proposed by the Commission proposal, would prevent ports from addressing local environmental challenges.”
The European Commission is also preparing an EU submission to the IMO proposing a 100% indirect fee without quantity thresholds at international level.
