CHINA’S POLICY ON MANAGEMENT OF MARINE LITTER FROM SHIPS

by Cuiming Xu

Consultant, Department of Ship Safety and Pollution Prevention
China Maritime Safety Administration, 11 Jianguomennei Avenue, Beijing 100736, P.R. China
xucuiming@msa.gov.cn

ABSTRACT

This paper briefly introduces the general situation about damage caused by pollution from marine litter (garbage), and describes China’s management process for prevention of pollution by garbage from ships and the counter measures adopted by the Chinese Government, such as: basic requirements, remediation of “White Pollution”; availability of adequate reception facilities for garbage from ships, enforcement of State control and prevention of illegal discharge from ships, promotion of environment protection and enhancement of awareness in environment protection. In order to reduce or eliminate pollutant discharge, it identifies some problems and makes some suggestions as follows: (i) further enhancement of the awareness of the society and seafarers in environment protection; (ii) improvement of means of control; (iii) protection of particularly sensitive sea areas; (iv) strengthening regional cooperation; and (v) implementation of a mandatory levy system for discharge of pollutants from ships.

GENERAL

Damage Caused by Pollution from Marine Garbage

Damage caused by pollution of marine environment means harmful effects from direct or indirect introduction into the seas of substances which damages marine living resources and human health, produces negative impact on fishery and other legal activities, and leads to lower quality of marine water utilization and marine environment. As one of the physical forms of pollution damage to the marine environment, pollution from marine garbage dates back the early days of maritime history, although the pollution in ancient times was insignificant. However, things have changed dramatically in modern shipping, as great increase in number of ships and intensity of traffic have caused more and amore serious pollution to the marine environment. Particularly, since the opening and reform policy and with a rapid growth of the economy of China, ships entering China’s sea areas are increasing day by day and the pollution form marine garbage is becoming ever more serious. In the sea areas of Bohai and Jiaozhou Bay of Qingdao, marine pollution caused by garbage is becoming even severe. The marine environment, fishing resources and navigational safety in these sea areas have been affected to different degrees, as various types of garbage stay in the seas, with some floating on the surface and some settling into the seabed, due to the geographical features of the region and poor exchangeability of the sea waters.

Organization and Personnel

Along the coastline and Yangtze River, Pearl River and Heilongjiang River, China MSA has established 20 Regional MSAs under which 113 local branches have been established. China MSA boasts of a working team consisted of about 28,000 qualified officials and other working staff and a patrol force of about 1,300 vessels and crafts of various types. One division set up within each Regional MSA mentioned above, which deals with the prevention of pollution from ships, main functions such as: organizing, coordinating the responses to oil spills; preventing pollution from ships; checking the pollution prevention equipment and the availability and validity of relevant documents, and investigating and dealing with pollution accidents etc..

China’s Management Process for Prevention of Pollution by Garbage from Ships

China pays great attention to marine environment protection, and therefore has gradually established its marine environment protection institutions and corresponding legal systems. Both the public awareness for marine environment protection and management of law have been enhanced. The cause of marine environment protection has been progressing continuously. Thanks to the improvement in marine environment protection, the trend of worsening pollution has abated, the environment quality in some of the sea areas has improved, and the water quality in the larger sea area has remained fairly good, even though the total quantity of polluting substances has increased as a result of rapid growth of the economy in the coastal region.

In as early as 1974, China enacted the first environment protection law – namely, (the Interim Regulations on Pollution Prevention in Coastal Waters of the People’s Republic of China) which regulates the treatment of garbage from ships. In 1982, the Law on Marine Environment Protection was established, which constitutes the basic law for protecting the Chinese marine environment and specifies the provisions on prevention of marine pollution by garbage from ships. Thereafter, several sets of relevant administrative rules, regulations and standards have been promulgated, such as: the Administrative Rules for Prevention of Marine Pollution from Ships of the People’s Republic of China, the Administrative Regulations for Prevention of Inland Water Pollution from Ships of the People’s Republic of China, the Administrative Regulations for Environment Protection in the Transportation Sector, the Standards on Discharge of Pollutants from Ships, and the General Technical Requirements on Degradable Tableware used on Board Ships. Meanwhile, China has also formulated some regional regulations for application in the heavily polluted areas, e.g., the Administrative Regulations for Prevention of Pollution of the Yangtze River by Garbage from Ships and by Solid Wastes along the Riversides, which was adopted in 1997, thus establishing specific rules and regulations for preventing pollution by garbage from ships and by solid wastes along the riversides, and for providing and managing waste reception facilities. Starting from the 1 October 2001, China has been implementing the Bohai Blue Sea Action Plan which aims at marine pollution prevention from ships and protection of the biological environment in the Bohai sea area. Through the combination of all those programmes, the legal systems and policy framework have basically taken their shapes to the benefit of prevention of pollution by garbage from ships in the shipping industry of China.

As a Contracting Party to the 73/78 MARPOL Convention, China acceded to Annex V to the Convention on 21 November 1988. In order to fully implement the 1995 Amendment to Annex V to the 73/78 MARPOL Convention, prevent garbage pollution from ships and protect the marine environment, and according to relevant rules and regulations, new and existing ships engaged in international voyages (and voyages to and from Hong Kong and Macao) began complying with this amendment on the 1st July 1997 and the 1st July 1998 respectively. More over, ships engaged in domestic voyages began complying with the amendment on the 1 October 2005.

COUNTER MEASURES ADOPTED BY THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT

Basic Requirements

To control and reduce garbage volume introduced into the sea is the major means to prevent marine environment pollution. China, through its national legislation and in accordance with the regulations of Annex V to the 73/78 MARPOL Convention, gives effect to her management by 4 different steps, which are the collection, treatment, storage and discharge of garbage from ship. Ships are required to install pollution prevention equipment and instruments in order to have adequate waste treatment capability. China has developed the following provisions on the management of garbage from ships:

> On treatment and discharge of garbage from ships in accordance with international conventions and national regulations.

The standards on discharge of garbage from ships applied in China are as follows:

Standards on Discharge of Garbage from Ships

> On compliance with requirements contained in the ship garbage management plan and Garbage Record Book

All ships of 400 gross tons or above and all ships which are certified to carry 15 passengers or more should carry a garbage management plan to be observed by seafarers and carry a Garbage Record Book. On board all ships of less than 400 gross tons and all ships carrying fewer than 15 passengers, the garbage treatment information should be accurately recorded in the Ship’s Log. The garbage management plan is developed on the basis of the relevant IMO Guidelines, and should be implemented by designated personnel on board ships. The plan should include the written procedures for garbage collection, storage, disposal and treatment, and equipment operation procedures on board ships.

All the ships which are required to carry a garbage management plan should carry a Garbage Record Book. Each discharge operation or action in relation to garbage on board ships should be properly recorded in the Garbage Record Book.

> On compliance with garbage disposal placard

All ships of 12 meters or above in length should put up garbage disposal placard and promulgate discharge requirements to seafarers and passengers.

> On compliance with provisions relating to garbage pollution accidents

Pollution accidents caused or identified by ships should be reported to the Administration, which has the right to investigate into and deal with ships causing pollution accidents.

Remediation of “White Pollution”

Plastic package material is causing a very serious “white pollution” due to a large amount of disposal along the Chinese railways, into three gorges of the Yangtze River as well as in cities and towns. In 1996, the Chinese government decided to comprehensively remediate the “white pollution”. The Chinese Government decided that the “white pollution” problem along the Yangtze River, in the Taihu Lake and along railways should be solved within one year, by terminating the use of one-off foam tableware. Thereafter, the Chinese Ministry of Communications enforced the regulations on total prohibition of non-degradable polystyrene foam tableware (foam plastics) on passenger ships and cruise ships which sail along the Yangtze River and the coast. In addition, all one-off tableware must be made of degradable materials. In such a way, the problem of “white pollution” to the marine environment has been effectively solved.

Availability of Adequate Reception Facilities for Garbage from Ships

In order to ensure adequate reception facilities in ports, China has required ports to build in ship garbage reception facilities at the early stage of the construction. Ports handling ship garbage reception must have adequate and appropriate reception facilities. Over the last 30 years, construction of large and medium-sized ports in China has been effectively implementing a system to assess impact of the projects on the environment and another system of “three simultaneities” to protect the environment around engineering projects. At present, every port has installed garbage treatment facilities which are equipped with garbage reception vehicles and ships. According to statistics, in 2005, ports under the jurisdiction of Shandong Maritime Safety Administration alone received more than 10,000 tons of garbage from ships.

Enforcement of State Control and Prevention of Illegal Discharge from Ships

As an authority responsible for implementation of the 73/78 MARPOL Convention in China and for enforcement of the Law on Marine Environment Protection and the Law on Water Pollution Prevention, China Maritime Safety Administration and its subsidiaries have set up specialised administrative units for prevention of pollution from ships, which are carrying out surveillance and inspection on ship garbage management strictly in accordance with relevant international and national rules and regulations. According to the statistics, China MSAs carry out up to 20,000 inspections on pollution prevention certificates and pollution prevention equipment on board ships each year, detect and deal with violations of more than 1000 cases each year. Currently China is one of a few countries that have the best performance in such enforcement.

Promotion of Environment Protection and Enhancement of Awareness in Environment Protection

Environment protection is a cause of the entire nation which needs the involvement of the whole society. Therefore, the Chinese government takes every opportunity, such as the “Fifth of June” World Environment Day, to promote environment protection by way of different activities. Thanks to such efforts, the public has gradually realised the importance of marine pollution prevention, has greater understanding about laws and regulations concerning garbage pollution prevention, and more importantly has truly recognised the significance of garbage pollution prevention.

ISSUES AND SUGGESTIONS

Further Enhancement of the Awareness of the Society and Seafarers in Environment Protection

To achieve this goal, the government, social groups, enterprises and individuals need to be mobilised, starting from themselves, to reduce the volume of garbage and to refrain from littering, thus preventing marine pollution by garbage. Particularly, seafarers’ awareness in environment protection needs to be further enhanced through promotion activities and heavier administrative penalties, in order to reduce garbage pollution from ships at sea.

Improvement of Means of Control

Unlike the case with surveillance of oil waste discharge from ships, currently there is a lack of effective surveillance and monitoring means for garbage discharge from ships. This is a regional and global issue. Therefore, we suggest that further study should be carried out in this area by NOWPAP members, Contracting Parties to the MARPOL Convention, IMO and other international organisations, to further improve means for surveillance and monitoring of illegal discharge of garbage from ships.

Protection of Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas

In the heavily polluted Bohai sea area, any discharge of garbage from ships should be prohibited under national legislation, such as Regulations for Bohai Environment Protection or by application for PSSA status through IMO, so as to designate the Bohai Sea Area as a PSSA.

Strengthening Regional Cooperation

Regarding the issue of marine garbage pollution in the North West Pacific, we propose that all the member states should avail the opportunity of this conference to further strengthen regional cooperation in technical research, management practices and joint efforts on pollution prevention.

Implementation of a Mandatory Levy System for Discharge of Pollutants from Ships

At present, China has no mandatory systems in place to levy charges on pollutant discharge from ships. This type of levy system is to charge certain amount of fees from polluters in accordance with relevant national regulations, taking into account the categories, quantities and concentrations of discharged pollutants. The feature of this type of fees is to apply the law of value to put financial pressure on polluters in order to reduce or eliminate pollutant discharge. Mandatory requirement on ships to pay fees for pollutant discharge will help to strengthen the ability at national ports to receive and treat pollutants and to protect the environment around ports and at sea. It is a necessary measure to benefit our posterity. It is proposed that concrete and feasible methods be properly worked out, so as to establish a levy system to be imposed upon discharge of pollutants from ships which is commensurate to the circumstances of our county.