REPORTS of ships dumping food waste
and grey water into Australia's Great Barrier Reef has aroused a German waste water
treatment company to demand the UN's International Maritime Organisation
(IMO) to make the Marine Pollution convention (MARPOL Annex
IV) more stringent.
Food waste is leftover food and
table scraps and grey water is defined as the "relatively clean waste
water from baths, sinks, washing machines, and other kitchen appliances".
Sounding the alarm, and demanding
the United Nations convention needs "urgent revision" is ACO
Marine managing director Mark Beavis, who operates from Budelsdorf on
the Kiel Canal.
"Pulped slurry could have been
transferred from a food waste holding tank to the ship's grey water holding
tank from where it was unintentionally discharged overboard into the protected
marine park," said his press release,
"There is still no
internationally-enforced requirement to prevent the damage that this waste
stream can have on the marine environment and, ultimately, human health. Grey
water is a such an under-reported threat; much more so than oily water, black
water and sewage," said Mr Beavis.
"It overloads the biological
make-up of the eco-system, is being consumed by marine life and is entering the
food chain," he said.
In October, researchers at the Medical
University of Vienna and the Environment Agency Austria published the
results of a study into the amount of microplastic found in human stools.
"If we follow the spirit of MARPOL
Annex IV, then grey water must be added because it has a far greater
environmental and human impact than any other wastewater stream," he said.
Source : HKSG.
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