In a digital meeting, the plastics manufacturing industry association, Allard Castelein, CEO of the Port of Rotterdam Authority, inked the Operation Clean Sweep® Pledge, in efforts to tackle pollution.
In 2017, a small group of pioneering ports created an inventory ship-generated noise in berth, at anchor and manoeuvring to get in berth or leaving the berth. The project NEPTUNES – Noise Exploration Program To Understand Noise Emitted by Seagoing Ships – aims to mitigate the noise pollution from seagoing vessels.
On October the 9th, the Transport Committee of the European Parliament adopted the Meissner report on the Port Reception Facilities and gave a mandate to the Rapporteur to start negotiations with the Council to finalize the text of the new law. In light of this, the Port of Rotterdam supports the view that minimization of waste discharges in the sea has plenty of benefits.
The Port of Rotterdam Authority will replace a section of the slopes stretching over more than 9 kilometres that have been contaminated by the ‘Bow Jubail’ oil spill. Currently, cleaning is still focused on those sections of the port infrastructure that have not yet been cleaned.
After the ‘Bow Jubail’ made contact with a jetty in the Port of Rotterdam on June 23, it ruptured the hull, spilling about 217 tons of heavy fuel oil. The port authority along with emergency services started mitigation measures and have a now cleaned a large amount of the oil spilled.
On 23 June 2018, a collision between a tanker and the jetty in the Port of Rotterdam, Europe’s biggest seaport, caused about 217 tonnes of HFO to spill into the water. The incident highlights the need for a ban on the use and carriage of HFO which can have a devastating environmental impact, warned the Clean Arctic Alliance.
According to the Port of Rotterdam, the start-up OCRS has developed a method to clean up oil slicks. Founders Frans Vandepoele, Bruno Valkeniers and Henk Smith are aiming to use the method to combat oil pollution in all parts of the world. In the words of Valkeniers, it is about “SOS”, or “Save Our Seas”.
J. (Rob) Witte, DGMR advised how to reduce ‘’Noise in Ports’’ during the 2016 GREEN4SEA Conference & Awards. He explained that moored seagoing vessels produce sound that can be perceived as annoying by residents living near harbours. The number of complaints in the Rotterdam Port Area is on average 250/year on this subject
From 1 January 2016 sea-going vessels will be able to dispose of unlimited plastic ships’ waste free of charge in the ports of Rotterdam Rijnmond and the North Sea Channel district.
