WASTE MANAGEMENT IN LARGE CRUISE OPERATIONS

What to Do with Trash Onboard?

It’s a question often overlooked before setting sail, especially for those used to short trips of just a few hours or days, but it quickly becomes a pressing issue during long voyages. The answers each person provides have repercussions on the crew's well-being at sea but also play an important role in the impact of leisure boating on remote archipelagos. What about those eco-conscious sailors at home who disembark, with or without remorse, their well-filled trash bags in the few bins of an island with just a few dozen inhabitants forced to burn their waste in the absence of treatment systems like those found in our large cities?

For our well-being while cruising, as well as that of the populations we encounter, we must adopt healthy waste management practices. The answers are unique to each crew, but here are some approaches I’ve tried during my long-distance sailing, whether delivering boats or cruising with family.

1. Manage purchases and consumption of fresh products: Nothing is sadder than having to throw away vegetables or fruits that could have been enjoyed if we hadn’t forgotten them for a few days at the bottom of a locker. Creating a proper shopping list that takes into account the shelf life of each type of food is essential. The list should then be updated as we consume to ensure that we eat first what expires quickly.

2. Store fresh products properly in ventilated and well-separated bins to prevent mold from spreading.

3. Get rid of cardboard and plastic packaging before departure: Throw away anything that can be easily sorted and processed at the departure port, as it will take up space later.

4. Don’t bring thousands of pages of various manuals, rather store PDF versions on your tablet!

5. Don’t bring water bottles when alternatives exist: With a desalinator and a filtration system, we can easily meet the crew's freshwater needs. Rainwater, provided it’s collected away from pollution and filtered, is excellent and requires no energy to produce. However, if collected from the roof, which may not be clean, it should only be used for cleaning, not drinking. Of course, a reserve is needed in case of critical situations, but it will be much better stored in 10 or 20-liter jerrycans than in dozens of plastic bottles!

6. Once at sea, compact non-biodegradable waste as much as possible. There are plenty of tools available to do this.

7. Organic waste can be thrown into the sea where it will delight the fish… provided 
   1. To be far from the coast
   2. To ensure not to throw it in with non-biodegradable items!

8. Have transparent bags for recyclable waste so they can be easily identified when we disembark.

9. Reserve a storage area for trash bags at sea:
   1. Large enough
   2. Free of items that could absorb odors
   3. Easily accessible while sailing

10. Reserve a storage area for hazardous or chemical items such as used batteries.

11. Offer to take this type of waste from the population of isolated islands on board to transport it to a treatment center when we stop in an area equipped to handle it.
     

The naval architecture of Excess catamarans, focused on pleasure under sail, leads to a recessed and compact nacelle and long forward lounges. Aside from the dynamic aesthetic effect, reminiscent of a Jaguar Type E, this also has a much more practical advantage: the long and deep bows are the ideal place to store trash, especially since these are watertight compartments, so odors do not spread to the rest of the boat. To optimize it even further, we can compartmentalize these large lockers, for example, with textile storage on slides. This allows us to differentiate the storage area for mooring lines and fenders, sails, and trash. In bad weather, when sailing close-hauled, it’s better not to open the forward hatches, and the very large locker at the back of the cockpit can serve as temporary storage since it is also well insulated from the rest while being accessible in all weather.

Here are some reflections based on my experience, but the aim of this article was to question the Excess community: on your catamaran, what solutions do you use? What storage or organization would you like to have? Would you be willing to participate in projects to help the inhabitants of remote archipelagos manage their waste ?