Royal Caribbean to Clean Up Waste Problem

Royal Caribbean to Clean Up Waste Problem

MIAMI (AP) - Royal Caribbean International cruise lines will add equipment to its ships that will better clean sewage and waste water before it's dumped in the ocean, officials said Wednesday.

The ships' equipment will clean the up to 24,000 gallons of sewage or "blackwater" and 265,000 gallons of "graywater" from laundries, showers, sinks and dishwashers each dumps daily when it's at sea.

The announcement came a month after the nonprofit advocacy organization Oceana and other groups called for the cruise line to clean up its sewage and wastewater to protect marine habitats and human health. At the time, the company accused the groups of "grandstanding."

"We are confident today this technology economically and environmentally can treat graywater and blackwater to levels of purity equivalent to Alaska wastewater standards," Royal Caribbean chairman and chief executive Richard Fain wrote in a letter Tuesday to Oceana officials.

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http://news.findlaw.com/ap_stories/f/1310/5-5-2004/20040505133004_16.html

in 1984. The ship was operated by a Taiwanese crew with an America staff. I saw them, at night, dumping garbage bags overboard. These were the biggest garbage bags I've ever seen, about 6 feet high x 6 feet radius. I told my friend who was America staff. I inquried what happended when she told the cruise director. She said he said; "Oh, I told them not to do that when passengers are still up."

From all the info I gathered hanging around ports like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore... the standard procedures are to dump ALL waste overboard. Especially smaller non-passenger ships.

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It gets better. We stopped in Juneau, Alaska. Everyone on the ship went off to see bears on the trails. Me being rebel all my life, I asked jokingly asked a local where the dump was because my girlfriend wanted to see a bear. He pointed 2 miles out of town. Knowing that my father used to take us to the dumps in Kentucky to watch bears eat human garbage. But even to this day, I remember my father telling me we couldn't see anymore because the new laws stopped bears from eating garbage. The dumps were fenced off. I must have been 4 but I still remember that exactly.

I was surprised to see and open dump in the state capital. More surprised to find it was on fire. They burned their garbage not just a land fill dump. Does anyone know if Juneau still has this dump?

(we saw 3 black brown bears.)