Audible response
Consultation response to the Executive Order on reception facilities for waste from ships, on ships' delivery of waste and ports' waste plans
Danish Ports thanks for the opportunity to submit a consultation response to the 4 secondary acts to the executive order on reception facilities. Danish Ports has asked our members to comment on the Executive Order. These comments are included in our consultation response.
General comments
Danish Ports welcomes that the waste should not end up in the sea, but should be delivered to the ports.
In general, Port Denmark's position is that it is an over-implementation to make this temporary regulation/order when it is already known that new rules will be issued when the EU's implementing legislation is in place. This will
mean that the ports will have to adapt to new rules in two stages at relatively short intervals.
Specific comments to the executive order
§ Section 11(3). Upon delivery, the operator of the port reception facility or the port owner shall complete the form in Appendix 3 ("waste delivery receipt") and issue and deliver the waste delivery receipt to the master without undue delay, cf. however subsection 4.
In many ports, ships simply drop off their waste in the containers at the port. They drop off their waste when it fits into their operation. And the ports are not staffed to go out and receive waste from each ship and sign for it, not during the day, and certainly not outside.
This means that it would be very costly for ports if they had to manually sign for the waste at each drop-off.
Stk. 5. The operator, agent or master of larger ships shall electronically report the information from the waste delivery receipt in SafeSeaNet before departure or as soon as the waste delivery receipt is received.
It seems very old-fashioned to introduce paper receipts that
must subsequently be entered into an electronic system. That said, a
license for SafeSeaNet costs DKK 60,000/year - many ports will not be able to manage with one
license, and this is a direct cost to the port.
Danske Havne suggests that ports or the operator of the port's receiving facility
should be able to sign electronically in SafeSeaNet without having to pay for a license.
It should also be possible to sign via app on phone, ipad or similar.
§Section 13(4): The operator of the port shall each year, e.g. by posting, inform the port's
users of the expenses incurred by the port for the handling of operational waste. In the
notice, the basis for calculating the port fee in respect of
waste management under subsection (2) shall be stated
Ports can account for how much they spend on collection, handling
and disposal of operational waste. It will be difficult to indicate how much of the
ship dues is spent on waste management, and it can also be difficult to
separate what fishing ports receive from cargo ships (which pay
ship dues) and what they collect from fishing vessels (which do not pay ship dues - but
ad valorem tax). It is important to remember that port fees are often set based on
commercial considerations in the port.
§ The Danish Environmental Protection Agency supervises compliance with the rules laid down in this Executive Order
. Stk. 2. On an annual basis, at least 15% of the total
number of individual ships calling at Danish ports shall be inspected.
Less control from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, which goes from 25% to 15%, may contribute to
ships delivering large quantities of waste to ports where it is easy
to dispose of it. In addition, there is also less control of whether the
reported quantities of waste correspond to the delivered waste, see also comments on
§ 22.
§ Unless a higher penalty is prescribed under other legislation, any person who
9) provides false or misleading information in connection with
the waste notification, cf. section 12, or in connection with an application for exemption
under section 18 shall be liable to a fine
Another problem is that the ships' pre-declared waste and its weight/volume
(stated in Appendix 2) does not correspond to what is actually delivered. Danish Ports
therefore believes that stricter requirements should be imposed on arriving ships so that the information
reported in SafeSeaNet is correct.
Danske Havne is available if there is a need for further dialog or
more detailed answers in the future.
Sincerely
Kasper Ullum
Environmental Consultant
Danske Havne