PRESS RELEASE: European shipowners welcome the Plastic Strategy adopted by the European Commission last week.
The coherent and impressively first-ever Europe-wide strategy on plastic forming part of the transition towards a more circular economy also included the long awaited revision of the Ports Reception Facilities Directive.
The new proposal aims to achieve a higher level of protection of the marine environment and introduces measures to prevent marine litter. It aims to ensure there are adequate port reception facilities available, require an advance waste notification from ships and transparency of the waste delivery fee charging structures. The majority of marine litter originates from land-based activities but shipping has an important role to play in controlling the ship-generated waste.
“ECSA fully supports the aim of the Port Reception Facilities Directive to prevent illegal discharges of ship-generated waste and cargo residues into the sea by encouraging vessels to discharge all waste to shore-side receptacles”, said Martin Dorsman, ECSA Secretary General.
