Overview

A small number of organizations have recently launched aggressive campaigns against the cruise industry. Their accusations are based on unfounded generalities and sometimes dated information that does not apply to the modern-day cruise industry. In response, the International Council of Cruise Lines (ICCL) - the international organization representing 15 passenger cruise lines - offers the following information to set the record straight and to separate cruise industry myths from facts.

A Commitment to the Environment

Myth:  "The cruise industry has a legacy of polluting our oceans.."
 - Bluewater Network 

Fact:  Although accidents have happened in the past, the ICCL members are continuing to work on addressing all environmental challenges that are common to every inhabitant of the planet .  ICCL standards surpass the U.S. and international laws.  ICCL's fleet accounts for two-thirds of the world's cruise ships and is compromised of less than 5 percent of all passenger ships and only 0.2 percent of the world's trading fleet.¹  The ocean is our home.  We are a small part of the problem, but a big part of the solution.

The cruise industry recognizes that its very vitality depends on clean, healthy oceans and pristine marine sanctuaries. Clearly, it is in our inherent business interest as well as the public interest to be the strongest possible stewards of our industry's lifeblood - the environment. Our actions in preserving the environment often surpass the already stringent standards required by U.S. and international law.

From investing in technological advances or following leading best practices to simply creating a more environmentally friendly shipboard culture, we are continuously working to improve our environmental management to minimize - and whenever possible eliminate - the environmental impact of our ships.

Following Environmental Regulations

Myth: "Cruise ships are giant floating cities that produce enormous volumes of completely unregulated or inadequately regulated waste."
- Bluewater Network
  
Fact: In U.S. waters, cruise ships proactively participate and follow U.S. laws and regulations that are enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Justice and U.S. Coast Guard. In some cases, the cruise industry's own guidelines exceed the laws required of them.

Preventing Environmental Violations

Myth: "Cruise ships routinely violate the law by dumping dirty water and trash into our oceans and coastal waters without regard to the environment."
- Bluewater Network

Fact: ICCL members meet or exceed all U.S. and international standards for environmental compliance.  Ships may not discharge into the water any hazardous waste, including: dry-cleaning fluids or solvents; or chemicals used for photo processing, printing or photocopying; fluorescent or mercury vapor lamps; and certain types of inks, medicines and batteries. These items are held on board until they can be properly disposed of or recycled on land.

Ships are required to reduce the solid waste they generate by: purchasing in bulk, encouraging suppliers to use more efficient packaging; reusing packaging when possible and packaging more environmentally friendly materials. In addition, ships must actively promote the recycling of glass, metals, paper, wood and cardboard.

ICCL member lines routinely and proactively work to raise the level of environmental awareness of crew members and passengers alike. Crews receive advanced training in shipboard safety and environmental management procedures for those directly involved in these areas, while others responsible for processing wastes are trained in specific environmental duties and responsibilities.

Growing Responsibly

Myth: "The problems associated with cruise ship wastes and their impacts will only escalate in the future, as the cruise industry has been expanding at a steady rate, with 37 giant new ships scheduled for delivery over the next three years."
- Bluewater Network

Fact: The introduction of new, more environmentally friendly vessels will strengthen cruise lines' efforts to preserve the oceans by allowing many older vessels to be retired. These new ships are engineered with the latest technologies to help reduce waste and air emissions. In addition, despite the rapid growth of the cruise industry, cruise lines represent only a small part of the world's total shipping industry.
 
In the last 10 years, cruise ships have cut waste and garbage almost in half, while sustaining a growth in cruise capacity averaging 7.6% annually.

Minimizing Waste and Pollution

Myth: "A typical cruise ship on a one-week voyage generates more than 50 tons of garbage, two million gallons of graywater (waste water from sinks, showers, galleys and laundry facilities), 210,000 gallons of sewage, and 35,000 gallons of oil-contaminated water."
- Bluewater Network
 
Fact: There is no question that cruise ships generate garbage and waste - just as would any group of people living together on land. Individuals boarding a vessel cannot be expected to suddenly stop generating garbage and waste.  All ICCL member lines proactively participate in developing responsible standards that are actually stricter than typical land-based community waste management programs. Cruise lines have aggressively implemented waste management programs that actually reduce the creation of waste and recycle large amounts of it.  ICCL cruise lines recycle glass, aluminum, other metals, paper, wood and cardboard. In the last 10 years, cruise ships have cut waste and garbage almost in half, despite a growth in cruise capacity averaging 7.6% annually.

New technologies have made minimizing waste and pollution possible through:

• Improved sewage treatment facilities.
• Incineration of non-hazardous trash.
• Filtration of graywater to meet standards near those for drinking water.
  
• Storage and proper disposal of hazardous waste.
• Active recycling programs of batteries, plastics and glass.

Myth: "Cruise ship pollution is a BIG problem."
- Oceana

Fact:  "Contrary to popular myth, cruise ships are not a major source of pollution in U.S. coastal waters or beaches."² The greatest pollution threat to coastal waters is from nonpoint sources, including fertilizers, nutrients from livestock manure, oil and grease from paved surfaces, and drainage from abandoned mines. 

Cruise ships do not create a massive amount of pollution.  The entire cruise industry represents only two-tenths of one percent of all ocean-going vessels worldwide and is the only segment of the maritime industry on the cutting edge of environmental protection. ICCL members adhere to environmental standards and practices that meet or exceed the laws wherever we operate in the world. 

Managing Solid Waste

Myth: "The average-sized cruise ship...generates seven tons of garbage and solid waste every day, including bottles, cans, plastic, cardboard and food wastes.  Approximately 70 to 80 percent is incinerated at sea and then the ash is dumped into the ocean."
 - Oceana

Fact: Cruise lines have implemented extensive shipboard recycling programs and have product purchasing and management systems to reduce the amount of solid waste they generate. In fact, the average recycle rate for cruise ship waste is 60 percent - significantly higher than that of most local communities.  According to the EPA, the U.S. population recycles an average of 28 percent of its waste per year.³ Most waste that cannot be recycled on ships is incinerated, but the ash created is not normally hazardous. Cruise ships take steps to eliminate hazardous waste from trash before incineration. Ash is regularly tested to ensure its safety, and any trash or ash that is hazardous is landed ashore.

Handling Toxic or Hazardous Waste

Fact: ICCL lines have taken aggressive steps to significantly reduce or completely eliminate the discharge of materials considered toxic. In fact, our member lines proactively follow hazardous waste disposal standards that go above and beyond most U.S. community regulations.  As required by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, potentially toxic or hazardous waste, such as that generated from dry cleaning or photo and X-ray processing, is stored onboard while the ship is under way, and later landed ashore once the ship is in port and then transferred to certified chemical treatment and disposal facilities.

Filtering Bilge Water

Myth: "The average-sized cruise ship...generates 7,000 gallons of oily bilge water every day."
- Oceana

Fact: Bilge water is water generated from condensation or leakage in the vessel's machinery spaces.  A certain amount of hydrocarbons also collects in that water from various operational sources.  The average cruise ship generates approximately 2,000 gallons of bilge water per day, of which a very small percentage are hydrocarbons. When treated to reduce the oil content below 15 parts of oil per million parts of water, it is allowed by law to be discharged virtually anywhere. ICCL member lines meet and exceed international requirements for removing oil from bilge water. U.S., as well as international regulations, require all ships to have equipment on board that limits the discharge of oil into the oceans. 

Limiting 'Graywater' Discharges

Fact: ICCL cruise lines have proactively adopted a standard of prohibiting graywater discharges within four miles of shore. This is despite the fact that the EPA does not limit or prohibit these discharges at all. Many ICCL members also continue to research new technology and pilot graywater treatment systems onboard their vessels to improve treatment procedures before discharge, better managing the reuse of treated water.

Holding or Treating 'Blackwater'

Myth: "The average-sized cruise ship generates...30,000 gallons of human waste every day and can discharge sewage directly into the ocean three miles from shore."
- Oceana

Fact: As with graywater discharges, ICCL member lines have adopted a tougher standard of discharging sewage or "blackwater" than required by law. Our lines discharge only while a ship is more than four nautical miles from shore and under way at a speed of six knots or greater unless the effluent is treated to the state of Alaska standards for advanced wastewater treatment.

The Clean Water Act requires ships to hold or treat blackwater using an approved Marine Sanitation Device (MSD) certified, approved and inspected by the U.S. Coast Guard. Our members have also pioneered the development and use of advanced wastewater treatment technology that treats wastewater beyond the capability of most landbased wastewater treatment facilities.

Managing Ballast Water

Fact: Cruise ships only take on ballast water to displace other liquids such as fuel burned during a voyage.  Therefore, the volume of ballast water on cruise ships is very small.  It also is usually only taken onboard in the open ocean where very few invasive species are likely to be introduced.

Despite the low likelihood of invasive species being introduced by cruise ships, individual cruise lines have taken aggressive measures to eradicate even the possibility of invasive species in any ballast water discharge through new technology, and handling protocols.
 
For example:

• Although no treatment or operational practice has been approved, the U.S. Coast Guard is working on projects to address this issue. One project involves setting a standard to evaluate the discharge from ballast water treatment systems. The other project involves encouraging the installation and testing of ballast water treatment technologies onboard vessels.
• RCCL maintains a policy of no ballast water discharges in port unless the water is from a similar ecological area.
• Princess is piloting a new ballast water treatment system on one ship.

Reducing Air Emissions

Myth: "The average-sized cruise ship generates exhaust equal to thousands of automobiles every day, contributing to unhealthy smog in the air, acid rain, global climate changes, respiratory diseases, and dead zones and algae blooms in the ocean."
- Oceana

Myth:  "The majority of beach closures because of contaminated ocean waters are the result of cruise ships dumping blackwater or sewage into ocean waters close to shore."
- Oceana

Fact: There have been no reported beach closures due to cruise ship contamination.  The overwhelming percentage  of beach warnings and closures result from land wastewater discharges or runoff by local communities. Cruise ships account for a small fraction - 0.2 percent  - of total maritime traffic and, are equipped with state-of-the-art treatment capabilities.  Wastewater is not discharged in the coastal waters unless these advanced wastewater systems are being used, and from a distance of 4 miles off shore.  

Investing in Anti-Pollution Measures

Myth: "For the cost of a can of soda per passenger, cruise ships can stop polluting the oceans."
- Oceana

Fact: The vast majority of cruise ships invest far more than the cost of a can of soda per passenger to properly dispose of waste generated on voyages.  Over the past five years, cruise lines have spent an average of $2 million per ship.

If ICCL members retrofit all of the vessels with new technology that Oceana would approve of, it would take many years.  By the time the round of retrofits would be finished, new technology could be developed, allowing environmental groups to find new reasons to continue accusing the cruise lines.

Our record and environmental history are very clear:  Anti-pollution measures are not about money.  They are about spending dollars where they will do the most good for the environment.  The industry has never shied away from that investment and never will.  There is, at present, no silver bullet to solve wastewater problems, as Oceana and other groups would lead you to believe.  The Cruise Industry is, however, working with the very best people and organizations in the world to find systems that treat wastes in the very best way possible.

² Pew Oceans Commission, "Marine Pollution in the United States: Significant Accomplishments, Future Challenges," 2002.

³ EPA Web site at www.epa.gov, "Municipal Solid Waste," 1999.

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