What Are The Largest Ports Handling Cruise Ship Waste?

Since its inception in 2014, the Green Hub program has expanded to 33 ports worldwide, including the Galapagos Islands, where Silversea became a zero-landfill ship. Cruise ships generate a minimum of 1 million tons of pollutants and waste annually, including air emissions, ballast water, wastewater, hazardous waste, and solid waste. Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas is a zero-landfill ship, and crews recycle and burn food waste.

The Royal Caribbean Group is transforming waste management in the cruise industry to help protect the oceans. The company’s newest ships will convert recycling facilities into recycling facilities for recyclable materials, while non-recyclable waste may be sent to landfills or waste-to-energy facilities.

A medium-sized cruise ship produces 140808 m3 of all types of waste annually, with 90% being legally discharged at sea. The largest cruise ship in the world, Royal Caribbeans Symphony of the Seas, has a capacity of 6,680 passengers, each using on average between 200 and 250 liters of water per day.

Research has shown that Europe’s most polluted cruise ports include Barcelona, which suffers the highest levels of toxic air pollution from cruise ships, while Venice falls off the list. Only three of over 20 Baltic Sea cruise ship ports have adequate facilities to handle waste from cruise ships. In return for the waste fee, the Port of Tallinn is obliged to accept bilge water, wastewater, garbage, waste containing petroleum products and oil, and other waste.