Friends of the Earth’s analysis is the only existing comparison between cruise and land-based vacations that focuses on carbon emissions. The analysis looks at low- and high-end emissions based on different cruise ships and land-based activities. Land-based activities such as whale watching and rideshare transportation in and around Seattle were compared to someone being on a cruise ship for one day. Regardless of a high carbon itinerary on land, the difference is startling.

According to the analysis, one individual on a typical cruise ship emits roughly 421.43kg of CO² per day. Alternatively, one individual staying in a high-end hotel, using carbon-heavy transportation and choosing higher carbon activities emits just 81.33 kg of CO² per day. The carbon footprint of an average land-based vacationer is around 51.88kg, less than one-eighth of the average cruisegoer.

Cruise ships are known as heavy carbon emitters, and have a disproportionate impact on the health of port communities and destinations despite industry greenwashing about better practices. In 2019 ships that sailed from Seattle to Alaska during the six-month cruise season emitted a total of 1,120,324 metric tons of CO² equivalent (about 1.1 million tons of gas). These emissions stemmed from 13 cruise ships with a total of 559,414 total passengers.

Marcie Keever, Oceans and Vessels Program Director with Friends of the Earth, issued the following statement:

Our analysis shows that for the environmentally conscious traveler, a cruise should not be the first choice. Cruise companies like to parade their commitments to cutting plastic pollution and using less energy onboard, but they ignore the one factor that has the greatest impact on carbon emissions: the massive volume and low quality of fuel they use.

Cruise-goers do care about the climate impacts of their vacation choices, yet the cruise industry overall offers very few decent vacation choices. There is no longer any doubt that land-based vacations, even with plane and car travel, are overwhelmingly less polluting than getting on a cruise ship. It’s time for industry leaders like Carnival Corporation to address their dirty practices and take their responsibility to the planet seriously.

Communications contact: Shaye Skiff, kskiff@foe.org, 202-222-0723

The post Analysis: Vacationers Generate 8 Times More Carbon on a Cruise Ship than on Land appeared first on Friends of the Earth.

The report card measures each cruise line by four environmental criteria: sewage treatment, air pollution reduction, water quality compliance and transparency. After years of tracking cruise company impacts to environmental and public health, Friends of the Earth’s latest Cruise Ship Report Card marks few improvements in industry practices.

Of the 213 ships across 18 different cruise lines, Carnival and its subsidiaries scored the lowest for the fourth year in a row with F ratings, despite coming off federal criminal probation in the U.S. Regent was elevated to the top with a grade of C+. Disney was downgraded again from a B to a C this year for its Lighthouse Point development within a marine protected area in the Bahamas, while Norwegian Cruises received a C- grade for its middling effort to reduce its air and water quality footprint.

Marcie Keever, Oceans and Vessels Program Director with Friends of the Earth, issued the following statement:

After more than ten years of analyzing data from the cruise industry, cruising continues to be one of the dirtiest vacation choices. This industry is bent on false promises and pollution profiteering, even if that means shifting the burden onto frontline communities and vulnerable ecosystems.

Leaders like Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean market their “green” cruising efforts yet continue to use toxic, climate-damaging fuels, degrade our oceans with harmful wastewater dumping, and serve as virus super spreaders. We call on these corporate giants and governments around the world to take our climate, ocean and public health seriously.

The lack of independent oversight over cruise ship operations, combined with the continued use of “scrubber” technology on vessels has contributed to more than a decade of environmental degradation from cruise lines. Carnival Corporation, the world’s largest cruise company, repeatedly violated government standards, yet was released from criminal probation in April 2022. Most other cruise lines have been fined for similar environmental violations, yet the Biden administration and governments around the world have repeatedly failed to enact stricter regulations for the industry.

Cruise companies have also failed to protect public health. The CDC in 2020 ranked cruises as a Level 3 (high) risk for contracting COVID-19 for non-vaccinated passengers, and in 2021 only 1 out of 114 vessels earned a CDC “excellent” ranking through the agency’s COVID-19 program. Despite industry precautions, viruses like Covid-19 and norovirus are commonly spread on vessels, endangering the health of passengers and cruise staff alike.

The post Tenth Cruise Ship Report Card Reveals Industry Greenwashing appeared first on Friends of the Earth.

Reason 1: Cruise Ship Pollution

Cruise ships pollute everything in their path — the air, water, coastal communities, and fragile habitats. For starters, every day cruises emit the same amount of pollution as a million cars. An overwhelming majority of these ships are run off heavy, dirty fuel that fills the air with extreme amounts of particulate matter. But that’s not where the pollution ends. Because these floating cities are running 24/7, the port communities that welcome them have an exorbitant amount of added pollution filling the air which can cause and intensify health problems.  

And did we mention how they impact the ocean itself? We’ll go into more about that in reasons two and three!  

Reason 2: Cruise Ship Effects on Marine Wildlife

Marine wildlife are harmed in numerous ways by these giant ships. They release waste that is foreign to a typical oceanic habitat — everything from food to plastic. This ends up in the bellies of sea life and can cause them to choke or have digestive problems. It can even cause death. Did you know that it is estimated that there are more pieces of plastic in the ocean than grains of sand on the world’s beaches?  

And noise pollution is also a problem for marine wildlife. These ships are NOISY. Imagine living in a quiet, peaceful house. Then without warning, a mega building mysteriously pops on top of your house — filled with noise from thousands of people and a giant operating system. You would have a hard time being able to communicate with your family inside and would be stressed by the noise. That’s exactly what big ships do to ocean wildlife. They interfere with whales hearing and communication, which can cause changes to their feeding, mating, and other behavior.  

Reason 3: Cruise Ship Dumping

Think the ocean water is serene? Well just wait until the cruise you are on begins to spew sewage into the open water. Yuck! People don’t just stop using the bathroom when they’re on vacation. What comes out has to go somewhere, and most of the time it ends up being deposited directly into the ocean. 

Cruise ships dump black water, gray water, solid waste (like food, paper, glass, and plastic), oily bilge water, and scrubber wastewater all into the ocean, in many cases only partially treated and sometimes not at all! 

All this waste is filled with chemicals, bacteria, and heavy metals and it is dumped right on top of whatever marine wildlife is in its path. Could you imagine being outside minding your own business and suddenly a plane poured thousands of gallons of sewage and other toxins on you? I’m sure you’d be pretty upset — so imagine how the wildlife who can’t escape it feel.  

Reason 4: Cruise Ship Accidents

Accidents happen. But beyond the most famous cruise ship accident, there’s plenty more accidents that have happened since 1912. In fact, between 1980 and 2012, sixteen cruise ships sank. Now, to be fair, not all accidents are that severe. But when you’re stuck bobbing up and down in the ocean water and a fire breaks out, or the power suddenly stops working, or the captain turns off the ship’s alarm for the navigation system and strikes an underwater rock, you might be rethinking your vacation. 

For the record, all those incidents listed above have taken place, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg: 

• 2022: Carnival Freedom. Flames erupted from the smokestack of the Freedom while it was docked in Grand Turk. The reason for the fire is still unknown, but luckily for all the guests and staff, no one was injured. The passengers were able to disembark while they waited for a new ship to return them to Port Canaveral.  And in a not so shocking twist — cruise line passengers were offered no refund following the fire for the inconvenience of being stuck in a foreign country while they waited on Carnival to send a new ship to get them home.  
• 2013: Carnival Triumph. Oof. This one was no Triumph. The engine room had a fire, which was luckily contained. Unfortunately for those onboard, the fire knocked out the lights, air conditioning, hygiene system, and propulsion system. Now dubbed the “poop cruise”, passengers spent four days waiting to be towed back to port — all without working bathrooms. Two inches of sewage soaked the carpets and floors. Travelers ended up sick and with PTSD from the horrors of this “cruise from hell”. 
• 2012: Costa Concordia. The captain Francesco Schettino sailed closer to the island of Isola del Giglio than normal to impress local residents. It was never clear whether this was sanctioned by Costa or not. But The captain claimed he knew the waters well enough and shut off the computer’s navigation system. He didn’t know the waters as well as he thought and struck a large rock causing the boat to take on water and eventually sink. The captain then abandoned ship with 300 passengers still onboard. Tragically, 32 passengers died.  

Reason 5: Cruise Ship Crime

Crime happens in many places, and that includes on cruise ships. But did you know that all but one of the large cruise ships that operate out of the United States are NOT businesses registered stateside? That means if a crime happens in open waters it falls under the jurisdiction of the “flagged” country of the ship. It becomes tricky to negotiate jurisdiction just 12 miles offshore which is where US law enforcement jurisdiction ends. And if you’re a victim of crime, it will be much harder for you to get justice. 

The most common crime on cruise ships is sexual assault. Cruise lines have also cited crimes including homicide, missing persons, suspicious death, kidnapping, assault, and theft.  And for what it’s worth, there are NO police onboard the ships. The cruise lines have security, but these are not actual law enforcement officials.  

Reason 6: Cruise Ship Illness Outbreaks

Norovirus was once the most common outbreak on cruise ships. They regularly had occurrences of the very contagious virus that left passengers with stomach and intestinal issues (stomach flu symptoms of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and cramps) — which then spreads to the surrounding passengers onboard.  

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. Cruise lines were a cesspool that spread the virus like wildfire. Over 34 deaths of cruise line passengers were reported, and thousands of others became ill. The CDC implemented a no-sail order to try and slow the spread. But when the order was lifted more passengers became ill. The cruise lines still operated while they had COVID-19 cases on board. The CDC does have a color-coded cruise ship status on its website to warn travelers about the status of each ship, but if one person on board becomes positive with the virus, the wave of outbreaks will keep spreading. 

These two viruses aren’t the only ones that cause passengers to get sick. Cruise ship illnesses also include respiratory and bacterial infections, influenza, and even chickenpox.  

Reason 7: Cruise Ships Trap You on a Floating City

When you’re on a cruise ship, you have no escape. For many, that’s not an issue. But when something goes wrong — like for those on the “poop cruise” that we outlined above — you might be stuck with days of trauma while you wait on a tow.  

Not to mention other life events could leave you frustrated that you’re trapped on a giant floating city. If you need health care, prescriptions, or have a family emergency, you’re stuck onboard until the boat makes it to port. And if there is a hurricane, you may never make it to your destinations when the cruise ship has to reroute around the storm. 

And another little fact — if you disembark in a port city and don’t make it back to the boat in time, the ship will 100% leave without you and not look back. 

Reason 8: Cruise Ships Exploit Port Communities

The cruise industry is a big business — we’re talking BILLIONS of dollars in revenue year after year. But the communities that must appease them and their passengers are constantly exploited. First, as we mentioned above these communities are regularly polluted with cruise ship emissions. A cruise ship uses 12x the energy compared to your average hotel. But that’s just the beginning. These big businesses come in and exploit the country’s tourism economy — along with its cultural identity. They take untouched land and turn it into glorified theme parks. They create excursions that take away from local businesses. And they even work with legislators to silence the voices of local peoples.  

Better Travel Options

If you’re still on the fence — which hopefully after all that you are not — consider taking a green travel alternative instead of cruising. Eco friendly tourism is becoming a big business and might just be what you’re looking for. They still can offer a luxury experience but not at the expense of local communities, wildlife, and the planet.  

The post Reasons You Shouldn’t Take a Cruise appeared first on Friends of the Earth.

Cruising to exciting and unique destinations may sound like an experience of a lifetime but unfortunately, this form of travel is extremely harmful to the ocean and to our own human health.  

Of course, some cruise corporations are worse than others. That’s why Friends of the Earth compiles a yearly Cruise Ship Report Card to put a spotlight on the cruise industry’s dirty business practices and help potential cruise passengers make the best choices for the environment and their health.  

Friends of the Earth Cruise Ship Report Card

Our Cruise Ship Report Card is renewed every year to hold the cruise industry accountable. The goal is to shine a light on each cruise line and cruise ship to see where they fail — not just for the environment and the climate, but also for public health, coastal communities, passengers and crew, and marine ecosystems.  

Each cruise line is ranked on their environmental footprint. We start by taking a deeper look into the cruise ships that are part of the fleets of the major cruise lines. We consider the following for the more than 200 cruise ships on our report card: 

• Total people on board (including travelers and staff) 
• Destinations 
• Sewage Treatment 
• Air Pollution Reduction 
• Water Quality Compliance 

After those are all considered, the cruise lines themselves are also looked as a whole to review how transparent they are and how they behave in many of the destinations they travel to. All in all, we stack all the data up and give each cruise line a grade between A and F. Sadly, the harsh truth is that a large chunk of these cruise lines continue to fail year after year!  

Cruise Ships and Pollution

So why do these rankings matter? Cruise ships are notorious for being Big Polluters, but that still that hasn’t stopped people from hopping onboard while the cruises pollute everything in their path. Every day, the cruise industry keeps up their greenwashing campaigns that make passengers feel that they’re doing their part for the planet. Unfortunately, this is all propaganda. Most cruise lines are making surface level changes, nothing to substantiate real sustainability. Sure, towel reuse programs and LED lightbulbs are great, but when you’re spewing millions of gallons of black water over marine mammals, fish, and other sea life, or emitting exorbitant greenhouse gases into coastal communities, these changes are minuscule at best.  Our cruise ship report card is a great way to remind travelers that the industry is continuing to spew pollution into our air and water.  

Cruise Ship Emissions

Here’s the dirty truth – the overwhelming majority of cruise ships run on heavy fuel. Why? Because it’s cheaper than the alternative. While this is great for the industry’s bottom line, it’s devastating for the planet. In fact, cruises around the world emit the same pollution as approximately a million cars daily.  

And these cruise ship emissions are expelled not only at sea, but while they are docked at ports as well. Cruise ships have to be powered 24/7. Their guest rooms and bathroom facilities need electricity, their casinos still need to run, food still needs to be prepared and served in giant illuminated dining rooms — and all the while, cruise ship engines are running even if the boat is stationary. That’s a whole lot of energy coming from the engines. Enough energy to power a small city!  

The emissions are being forced onto port cities and inhaled by cruise passengers. While onboard, passengers are breathing in emissions 20x higher than a busy, polluted roadway. And port city residents are facing increasing health impacts — especially respiratory problems.  

Environmental Impact of Cruise Ships

The impacts to the environment don’t end there when it comes to cruise ships. Cruise ships also: 

• Develop damaging ports in diverse, biologically rich locations 
  • Take Disney for example. Soon, tens of thousands of passengers will be disembarking at Lighthouse Point in the Bahamas every year. It has been a treasured region by Bahamians for generations and is a pristine, showstopping sight. Unspoiled beaches, turquoise waters, and a high concentration of sharks, fish, marine wildlife, and endangered coral are all about to be at risk. Disney pushed forward with its private beach development despite local objections. 
• Dump raw sewage and waste into ocean waters 
  • Cruise ships dump not only black water (sewage) and food waste into the ocean, but they also dump gray water and fuel waste as well. The waters are filled with toxins, chemicals, and bacteria — none of which are part of a healthy oceanic habitat. Most if not all big cruise companies behave this way. 
• Spread bacteria and viruses 
  • Before the COVID-19 pandemic, cruise ships were a hotbed for norovirus. The nasty stomach bug spread like wildfire due to the close quarters. Now, with how easily COVID-19 also spreads, the cruise industry has another major virus that is causing its passengers and coastal communities harm.  
• Increased ocean noise 
  • Noise pollution is detrimental to many marine creatures. The noise from moving ships is radiated down to the ocean floor, which is then reverberated back to the water’s surface. This noise has already been linked to disrupting normal behaviors of wildlife, increasing stress, masking communication, and impairing feeding. And the more big cruise ships there are, the louder our oceans get.  

Why the Cruise Ship Report Card?

Let’s be honest. The cruise industry isn’t going to clean up its act on its own. Friends of the Earth created our Cruise Ship Report Card to ensure that their polluting ways can’t hide from the public. We want to ensure that their greenwashing efforts are called out and that these mega corporations are held responsible for the destruction they cause the planet.  

If you’re interested, we keep a record of report cards from previous years to see how they’ve stacked up over time. One day, we hope to see a report card full of As. Unfortunately, that day hasn’t come.  

The post Cruise Line Ratings appeared first on Friends of the Earth.

Yes, you read that right. Sewage does not have to be treated to be released into most places in our ocean waters, as long as the ship is about 3.5 miles offshore.  Human waste can literally be dumped into our oceanic ecosystems.

Cruise ship sewage

So how much cruise ship sewage is released into the oceans? It depends on the ship, but the bigger they are, the more passengers and crew there are to generate sewage. On a one-week journey on a medium sized cruise ship, over 200,000 gallons of sewage is collected and at some point must be treated and released into the sea or discharged onshore, but most is released into the sea.  In all cases, cruise ships are required to have sewage treatment facilities where the solids in sewage are filtered out and chemicals are added to the liquid waste to kill bacteria, but not all of these ships have the newest treatment systems. And in many cases, even the newest treatment systems don’t function properly, leading to large amounts of toxic sewage wastewater dumped onto corals and other vulnerable marine ecosystems. This means that more than one billion gallons of untreated or partially treated sewage is discharged from large cruise ships into our oceans every year. 

We know that human waste is not something you should be swimming around in. It is full of pathogens that are foreign to the ocean environment but are being introduced anyway. Bacteria, intestinal parasites, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and other toxins can be dumped into our ocean waters with little to no treatment at all. The oceans and all creatures who call them home are without a voice, allowing the cruise industry to dump human waste in their habitat, polluting everything in their path. 

Where does cruise ship sewage go?

Cruise ship blackwater is collected from toilets, medical facilities, and even dishwashers (due to the grease content). The implications on our marine wildlife, waters, and coastal communities poses a concerning risk. 

As we explored above, wildlife including coral, marine mammals, sea turtles, and fish are directly affected by the vast amount of discharge lingering in the ocean. The blackwater is also filled with phosphorus and nitrogen — among other things — that increases algae growth. This is leads to an entirely different problem for ocean life! Just like humans and other terrestrial animals, marine organisms need oxygen to survive. This growing algae consumes oxygen which is a necessary element for corals and other marine wildlife. As oxygen is quickly depleted from the water due to this oxygen-greedy algae, we see more and more dead fish and mammals wash ashore. Not only does this algae cause issues for marine animals, but it also causes health issues for humans!  

Additionally, fish and shellfish have been impacted by sewage contamination. If they don’t suffocate or die from losing their food sources from lack of oxygen, they continue ingesting the sewage that is present in their environment. After fisherfolk capture them for consumption these creatures now pose a greater human health risk through waterborne ingested illnesses.  

But the impacts to human health go further than that. Just because the ships are supposed to treat sewage waste dumped close to shore doesn’t mean that it actually happens, and waste dumped further out can definitely impact humans swimming closer to the coasts.  

Would you hop into a pool after a toddler had a messy accident in it or would you wait until it was cleaned up properly? Our guess is that you’d prefer to avoid swimming in fecal matter, but when you hop into the ocean, you’re doing just that. Water is obviously fluid and doesn’t stay in one place. The waves carry the water filled with human waste toward coastal communities. Enjoy surfing or water sports or even just dipping your toes in the gorgeous ocean water? Sadly, you could be taking a dip in the water filled with the excrements from cruise ship passengers. Surfers and beachgoers can easily ingest water that is filled with sewage making them sick. 

Do cruise ships dump blackwater in the ocean?

Yes. Unfortunately, blackwater (a.k.a. sewage, human waste) can be dumped into the water untreated as long as the ship is at least 3.5 miles from shore. And cruise ships can take full advantage of not having to treat the waste before releasing it from their ships while they are in the open ocean. 

Graywater vs Blackwater

While we’ve explored that blackwater is sewage, there’s another type of pollution that’s released into the oceans as well. Graywater is the wastewater from showers, sinks, bathtubs, and washing machines. It contains less contaminants than blackwater, but don’t be fooled — it also does harm to the waters that it’s dumped into.  

Graywater can contain medical and dental waste, food waste, bacteria, detergents, oil and grease, and other materials that are not native to aquatic ecosystems.  

Cruise ship sewage

Cruise ships dump sewage directly into the oceans. There’s no easy way to put it. These mega floating cities are filled with people who are utilizing the facilities and basically flushing the toilets right into the water. Despite the harm, it is completely legal for cruise ships to continue with this toxic dumping. 

The post What is Blackwater? appeared first on Friends of the Earth.

In fact, many cruise ship companies, from Princess Cruise Lines to Royal Caribbean Cruises, have been caught dumping garbage into the ocean. While it is against US and international maritime law to release garbage directly into the water, many cruise ships have done it anyway, and some have faced fines as a result. But that’s not stopping massive companies with huge profits margins from polluting the planet. And much of the sewage and wastewater pollution from cruise ships is perfectly legal, leading to toxic algae blooms, dead zones and toxic waterbodies around the world. Cruise ship trash dumping is a crisis across the world’s oceans, causing wildlife to die and hurting coastal communities. 

We’ve compiled a few commonly asked questions about cruise ship waste disposal and trash dumping to provide more information on how these cruise lines pollute the planet. 

Do cruise ships dump plastic at sea?

Yes, many cruise ships dump plastic at sea. It’s illegal according to U.S. and international maritime law, but many companies have proven they don’t care, and have been caught illegally spewing plastic into the sea. Carnival Cruise Lines was found dumping food mixed with plastic waste into the waters of the Bahamas. And in 2019, Royal Caribbean was fined $20 million for its illegal plastic disposal methods. The cruise industry has been accused of having some of the worst waste management practices worldwide, and while the law says cruise ships have to offload plastic at a port, we know that many are doing just the opposite. 

Can cruise ships dump waste at sea?

Yes. It’s quite legal to dump sewage and food waste into the sea. U.S. law requires cruise ships to treat waste within about 3.5 miles of shore—but beyond that, there are no restrictions on dumping polluted sewage and graywater. Researchers have estimated that over a billion gallons of sludge made from excrement and food scraps are released into the ocean every year by cruise lines. 

The sewage is not just human waste, but also contains chemicals, pharmaceuticals, bacteria, viruses, and heavy metals that are not naturally present in the ocean. Cruise ships don’t have the resources or the facilities to filter out many of these toxic substances. They end up in the habitats of many coastal animals from otters to dolphins to whales, leading to reproductive problems, illness and population decline. 

Food waste has also been linked to “dead zones” in the ocean: areas with a lack of oxygen in the water due to rampant algae growth, which can be toxic to fish, turtles, birds, dolphins, and more. Around 30% of food on cruise ships is disposed of as “fish food,” or liquified human food mixed with water. But the products we eat, from meat to dairy, often contain pesticides, chemicals, and growth hormones that aren’t natural for aquatic wildlife—let alone that they aren’t proper food for marine life. As a result, the liquified food waste can accumulate contaminants in animals at the bottom of the food chain, even affecting predators and other wildlife further up the food chain. 

Do cruise ships cause air pollution?

Cruise ships also emit large amounts of greenhouse gases and toxic air pollution. Every single part of the ship, from the spas to the restaurants to the casinos, runs on massive diesel generators that belch carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and other toxic pollutants into the air. Research has found that traveling on a cruise ship emits up to four times more CO2 as would traveling on a plane. And they emit far more sulfur and nitrogen oxides than other sources of travel and vacation, contributing to acid rain and higher rates of cancer. 

Can cruise ships damage coastal communities?

Rather than bolstering coastal communities through increased tourism and revenue, cruise ship traffic often hurts them. First, cruise ships can destroy coral reefs, which are fundamental to the livelihoods of many coastal communities. In George Town, Grand Cayman, three hundred acres of coral were lost to cruise ships anchors! A cruise in Cancún, Mexico, destroyed 80 percent of the coral in a beautiful national park after it ran aground. And in 2017, one of Indonesia’s main coral reefs was devastated by a cruise ship that crushed a coral reef near the Raja Ampat islands. 

But hundreds of millions of people worldwide depend on coral reefs for their lives and livelihoods. They protect settlements from storms, natural disasters, and floods, and create concentrations of wildlife and fish that can support an entire industry. As climate chaos already threatens these communities with ocean acidification and sea-level rise, cruise ships continue to smash through coral and endanger the reefs upon which people depend. 

Cruise ships also force many coastal communities to re-orient towards tourism, regardless of culture or history. And these communities are typically taken over by large corporations looking to capitalize on their beauty. Small, local business owners are squashed by large multinational corporations that offer everything from luxury hotels to excursions. Local formerly-successful business owners must adapt and re-inventing themselves as tourist-friendly options instead of maintaining traditional shops that exude culture. And in many cases, small business owners end up giving the cruise industry a cut of their business, just to have cruise passengers utilize their services. 

Cruise ships, plastic, and pollution

To be perfectly honest, cruise ships hurt the environment. All cruises are impacting our planet in one way or another. Of course, there are bad actors out there that are truly decimating our oceans by illegally dumping plastic waste, destroying coral, and filling our oceans with toxic waste. But the fact remains that all cruise ships impact the planet negatively. There is no such thing as a truly eco-friendly cruise, and even ones that are concerned with the environment are making minimal efforts at best.  

But some companies do a better job at managing their waste and minimizing their impacts on coastal communities. Friends of the Earth has compiled a Cruise Ship Report Card to help you determine which cruise lines are better for people and the planet, and which we could really use your help giving a BIG nudge to clean up their act. When you sign up to receive emails from Friends of the Earth, you can join other activists and work alongside Friends of the Earth to push for change. 

If that doesn’t pique your interest the best thing you can do is choose a different way to travel. Visit our list of green travel options to learn about the best ways to vacation while helping preserve the environment! 

The post Can Cruise Ships Dump Garbage in the Ocean? appeared first on Friends of the Earth.

But even with such a magnificent world left a mystery on our planet, only 7 percent of it is considered a marine protected area. The reason? It’s hard to protect what the world hasn’t explored. Leaving 93 percent of the ocean at risk — and polluters like the cruise industry have taken note. 

‘Is cruising environmentally friendly?’ is a very common question. Sadly, as fun as they seem, cruises pollute the water, air, and local communities. Cruise ships are not environmentally friendly.  

Why are cruises bad

Where to begin? First, let’s start with cruise ship sustainability.  This trendy term is greenwashing at its finest. Cruise ships are making surface level changes to appear sustainable. Changes like adding energy-efficient appliances, LED lightbulbs, and asking passengers to only request fresh linens and towels when needed. Many have even implemented recycling programs on their ships. And while we do not want to undermine these efforts, they’re nominal at best—things that have been done onshore for years.  

Cruise ships’ environmental impact goes well beyond the need for energy-efficient appliances and cutting down on laundry services. Most travelers these days have a sense of awareness about the climate problems our planet is experiencing, and the cruise industry isn’t doing nearly all it can to stop this crisis.  

How do cruise ships impact the environment

Cruise ships ecological impact is spread far and wide. No area that they touch is safe. 

• Air Pollution: A mid-sized cruise ship can spew as much particulate matter each day as one million cars. And they emit other toxins like nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides. These floating cities are never “shut down” — their engines are running day in and day out to keep up operations, including in port cities. 
• Water Pollution: Cruise ships can quite literally dump their waste directly into the ocean waters.  They can dump “black water” (sewage), “gray water” (waste from showers, sinks, and laundry), and scrubber wastewater (water used to clean heavy fuel oil exhaust from smokestacks). They also puree their food waste into liquid and deposit it directly into the ocean. 
• Noise Pollution: As cruise ships move through the ocean, the noise radiating from them blasts into the surrounding water and down to the sea floor where it’s reverberated back to the surface. These noise disruptions can impact the natural migration patterns and daily lives of marine animals.  

Who is most impacted by cruise pollution

There are two main groups who are more impacted than others when it comes to cruise ship pollution: coastal communities and marine wildlife.  

Cruise ships and coastal communities

Port communities have their coastlines inundated with cruise ships and their passengers. Not only is this a massive visual obstacle, but their presence also causes harm. First, as we mentioned above, cruise ships are never turned off. They are perpetually running to keep operations flowing — lights, food service, casinos, and the like. This means that cruise ships are emitting particulate matter into the atmosphere day in and day out. And since they’re run with the dirtiest, heaviest, most toxic fuel all that pollution is being spewed into the air in these port communities. And one cruise ship emits over 20 times more emission than a highly polluted roadway for coastal communities — but in many cases there’s never just one ship idling at the port.  

Next, there’s tourists who flood the towns. They embark and disembark in these coastal communities, causing an increased strain on infrastructure and for business owners and restaurants. Imagine 6,000 people flooding your small community — plastic bottles, trash and litter, noise, and traffic congestion. What a mess!  

But the harm caused by cruise ships to coastal communities does not stop there. The cruise industry has exploited small countries in search of the “private island” experience for their guests. They overtake pristine beaches and untouched regions and turn them into private theme parks for customers only. Coastal communities suffer while the cruise industry continues to rake in billions. 

Cruise ships and marine wildlife

Marine life have their habitat flooded with pollution from cruise ships as well. The toxic mix of sewage, food waste, and chemicals fills our ocean ecosystems — as long as the ships are a bit more than 3 miles from shore – and in some cases right at the dock. This pollution clouds the water and can reduce oxygen levels, introduces food sources that are not part of marine wildlife diets, and introduces toxins that impact the health and lifespan of wildlife. Cruise ships are legally dumping carcinogens into our ocean waters daily. 

Sadly, it doesn’t stop there. Noise pollution interferes with some wildlife’s communication and migration — and then there’s the potential for strikes by these cruise ships. Whales and other large marine animals are nearly impossible to spot on navigation of ships. Their bodies get the blunt force of the ship, leaving them severely injured or killing them on impact.  

The ocean is one of the most sensitive ecosystems on the planet — one that has yet to be fully explored by humans — and yet it is only minimally protected from the dangers of cruise ships. 

It’s safe to say cruise ships are not eco-friendly

Noise pollution, water pollution, air pollution — oh my! Any “green” initiatives that cruise ships are taking overlook the massive problems that they are causing to our planet. Cruise industry giants are trying to trick you into believing their sustainability efforts are helping. To get the truth, check out our Cruise Ship Report Card to get the details on how these cruise ships and the whole cruise industry actually stack up.   

The post Are Cruise Ships Environmentally Friendly? appeared first on Friends of the Earth.

But what happens to gray water in areas that do not have water treatment systems that properly treat this waste water? In this case we’ll take a deeper look at what gray water is on a cruise ship, where it is discharged, and its overall impacts on the environment.   

Sources of Gray Water

On a cruise ship there are numerous ways that gray water is created — showers, baths, sinks, laundry facilities, kitchens, and even water used in spas and pools. All the water going down the drain has to go somewhere, and on land there are major treatment systems that take care of the gray water for you. But when travelers are at sea on a cruise ship, the need for water doesn’t go away. And that means that gray water is still being created — and guess where it is headed!  

Where can you Discharge Gray Water? 

If you guessed that gray water is discharged into the open ocean waters, you’d be correct. Like sewage (black water), in many places in our oceans gray water can be released with very little or no treatment. That means that many cruise ships have no reason not to dump their gray water in open waters, so they take full advantage. 

Unfortunately, this means that our delicate ocean ecosystems filled with coral and vibrant fish and marine wildlife end up with murky, toxic water dumped on them with no escape.   

Is Gray Water Dangerous?

Gray water can contain a lot of dangerous elements that impact the ocean ecosystem. Other than the water itself, everything else within gray water is not found within a typical ocean ecosystem. While detergents and soaps have impacts on the environment; pharmaceuticals, chemicals, oil and grease, dental and medical waste, nutrients, petroleum hydrocarbons, and bacteria have even greater impacts. The presence of these chemicals can slowly poison marine wildlife and degrade the ocean habitat that they call home. 

And to make matters worse, cruise lines even dispose of their food waste as gray water. They puree any left over food products that aren’t consumed by staff and passengers with water until it becomes liquified. It is disposed in ocean waters along with gray water. The cruise lines of course greenwash this practice by saying it’s “fish food”, but the foods that humans consume are not within a normal diet of marine wildlife. And liquified human food waste is also filled with growth hormones, pesticides, and other chemicals that aren’t natural in the ocean ecosystem either. The increase in contaminants to the water impacts the entire oceanic food chain. 

Is Gray Water Bad for the Environment?

Gray water from cruise ships is dangerous for the environment. Not only does it introduce toxins to the waters, but the toxins do also more than just poison the animals living beneath the sea. Gray water can lead to oxygen depletion and spread bacteria. It also leads to higher levels of nutrients in the ocean ecosystem which can result in toxic algal blooms and dead zones.  

Gray Water and Black Water

While we explored that gray water is water from showers, baths, and sinks, its toxic counterpart is black water — a.k.a. human sewage. Both gray water and black water can be released untreated into the oceans in many places as long as cruise ships are far enough offshore.  

Some may think that black water is more harmful because it is untreated sewage that is being flushed into the ocean. And while it is toxic, gray water can be just as harmful as well. In fact, gray water can contain many of the same contaminants as sewage, including fecal coliform bacteria and pose just as high of a public and environmental health risk as black water.  

Cruise Ship Water Discharge

On average, cruise ships discharge up 45 gallons of gray water per day per person. That can easily be well over 250,000 gallons of gray water discharged in just one day on one cruise ship. And essentially nothing is being done to protect our oceans from this gray water waste. There are some laws that regulate where gray water can be discharged, but once ships are further than about 3.5 miles off the coast, the water can be freely pumped into the aquatic ecosystem with zero treatment. 

Friends of the Earth is working in the United States and internationally to implement stronger graywater discharge rules. To help our fight, please consider making a donation and help us protect the fragile ocean ecosystem.  

The post What is Gray Water? appeared first on Friends of the Earth.