Legislative actions in handling of waste disposal: The effect of waste receipt and its change on marine actors

Abstract

This report presents the findings of interviews conducted to expose perspectives and processes in relation to maritime waste management with a focus on waste receipt handling. The separate interviews have been conducted with three different stakeholder groups including Shipping agents, captains of involved vessels and ports, as defined in chapter 2.6. The findings and results of said interviews are organized within three main themes, the process of the waste receipt, the potential challenges in the process as well as if waste receipts are essential with a focus on environmental improvement. The report also includes findings from other main roles with a focus on the waste receipt process. The Swedish maritime administration and The Swedish Transport Agency. These two main authorities are governmental, as introduced in chapter 2.4. The authorities oversee legal and practical aspects and processes respectively with discourse amongst each other. The full process of the waste receipt involves different communication steps between stakeholders including receiving and sending the receipts amongst one another, verification and reporting to authorities. Potential challenges occurring are data entry errors as well as gaps in communication. The discussion part of the reports focuses on if waste receipts are essential and for them to comply with legislation and connecting these to environmental aspects. Optimization of technical solutions and promotion of collaboration between stakeholders are proposed to achieve potential enlarged efficiency and effectiveness of the waste receipt processes. Despite challenges, involved actors acknowledge the importance of the waste receipt in terms of environmental improvements in the maritime industry to comply with legislations set by higher forces. The collaboration between the three actors is extremely important for complying with the directives as well as the growth of the collaboration as well as effective communication between them. The conducted interviews were chosen to be conducted as semi-structures to allow qualitative insights and experiences from actors involved. The report recognizes potential challenges in terms full reliance of self-reported data. Therefore, future research could involve a mix of methods approaching the subject to receive a greater understanding. Overall, the waste receipts play an important role in driving environmental improvements in the maritime industry, although further cooperation and optimization is needed for addressed challenges and for a smooth process. This report is written in English.