What do cruise ships do with all the waste?

Question

Sewage? Food leftovers? Exhaust gases (from the engines)? Damaged goods (chairs, tables, pillows, sheets etc.)?

Do they just chuck all this junk into the sea?

Answer 1

They have contracts at different ports to dispose of their waste.

Because of very stiff fines no cruise line dumps anything into the water. If seen even the quests can be fined for throwing anything over the side.

Answer 2

Cruise lines are some of the best recyclers. They are most environmentally aware. The non recyclables are incinerated during the night, with air scrubbers, of course, and the ashes are disposed of in port, not at sea. They have strict regulations against throwing anything overboard.

Answer 3

Having worked on a ship...here is what I can tell you.

Left over food is discharged to the sea (fish food)

Waste water is treated and discharged to sea

Paper/Plastic is incinerated onboard and the resulting ash is off-loaded in designated ports.

Glass/Cans are crushed and off-loaded in designated ports

Cardboard is either incinerated or crushed and off-loaded in designated ports.

Exhaust gases are expelled through the stacks.

Damaged goods are either incinerated or off-loaded at designated ports.

Answer 4

Depends on the type of waste and where they are, but overall the cruise lines have become pretty darned eco-conscious.

Food - Chopped up and incinerated.  They used to feed it to the fish, but were persuaded that doing so was bad for the ecosystem.

Sewage - Extensively treated.  Solids are removed and either incinerated or off-loaded.  Fluids are treated to the point that it's just water (theoretically drinkable).  The pure water is released into the ocean.  

Damaged goods - brought into port for recycling or landfill

Note: the above applies to major cruise lines.  They're actually not OBLIGED to do anything if they're more than 20-some miles out to sea, where they're not covered by local laws.  So some sketchy lines do dump relatively untreated waste.  Stick to the guys who advertise in the US and you'll be fine.

There's a bunch of "green cruising" articles that cover this kind of stuff here:

http://www.cruisesavvy.com/keywords/gree...