How Much Do Cruise Ships Contribute To Pollution

Cruise ships have engines that run largely on diesel.

How much do cruise ships contribute to pollution. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics a 3000-passenger cruise ship considered an average size some carry 5000 or more passengers generates the following amounts of waste on a typical one-week voyage. Cruise ships generate about 15 gallons of hazardous chemical waste every day according to environmental group Friends of the Earth. Several years ago a similar study suggested that if you stand under the funnel of a cruise ship on a still day the pollution could be as high as that on the pavement of Piccadilly Circus in London.

In 2014 that number was around one BILLION gallons of sewage. In these unregulated areas theyll dump the untreated sewage waste of the thousands of people that they have on board. 25000 gallons of oily bilge water.

The passengers and crew aboard the biggest ships can produce 210000 gallons of sewage and almost five times as much graywaterfrom sinks showers laundry and so onin a single week. Per day one cruise ship emits as much particulate matter as a million cars. In Venice where outrage is reaching fever-pitch SOx emissions totalled 27520 kg from the ships while cars only totalled 1362 kg.

The solid waste materials that a cruise ship emits include paper cardboard and aluminium etc. A single large cruise ship will emit over five tonnes of NOX emissions and 450kg of ultrafine particles a day. According to their story just one of the worlds largest container ships can emit about as much pollution as 50 million cars.

Cruise ship vs airplane pollution. The most staggering statistic of all is that just 16 of the worlds largest ships can produce as much lung-clogging sulphur pollution as all. It has been estimated that 24 of the solid waste generated by vessels worldwide by weight comes from cruise ships.

With passenger numbers increasing we take a look at the problem of cruise ship pollution and ask what the industry is doing to tackle the issue. If playback doesnt begin shortly try restarting your device. Staggeringly if a report by the UKs Guardian newspaper is to be believed.