Amendments for the HME Substances and form of Garbage Record Book

26 June 2017 |  C17026

IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee, at its 70th session, considered and approved amendments for the HME Substances and form of Garbage Record Book, coming into force March 01, 2018.

NOTICE TO
Ship Owners/ Managers/ Operators | Flag State Administrations | Surveyors/ Auditors

MEPC 70 has adopted amendments to MARPOL Annex V related to marine environment harmful (HME) substances and the Form of Garbage Record Book as described below.

Amendments on marine environment harmful (HME) substances

As per MEPC.277(70) criteria for the classification of solid bulk cargoes, as harmful to the marine environment, are set by adding a new “Appendix I” before Appendix II. Owners are required to classify the solid bulk cargoes other than grain and declare whether they are harmful to the marine environment (HME), according to the criteria of the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) meeting the following parameters:

  1. Acute Aquatic Toxicity Category 1; and/or
  2. Chronic Aquatic Toxicity Category 1 or 2; and/or
  3. Carcinogenicity Category 1A or 1B combined with not being rapidly degradable and having high bioaccumulation; and/or
  4. Mutagenicity Category 1A or 1B combined with not being rapidly degradable and having high bioaccumulation; and/or
  5. Reproductive Toxicity2 Category 1A or 1B combined with not being rapidly degradable and having high bioaccumulation; and/or
  6. Specific Target Organ Toxicity Repeated Exposure2 Category 1 combined with not being rapidly degradable and having high bioaccumulation; and/or
  7. Solid bulk cargoes containing or consisting of synthetic polymers, rubber, plastics, or plastic feedstock pellets (this includes materials that are shredded, milled, chopped or macerated or similar materials).

Amendments on Garbage Record Book

The form of the Garbage Record Book has been improved, as per Annex I of this Circular, in order to distinguish the information on delivery and discharge to Port Reception Facilities of cargo residues. The new form consists two parts. Part I that is similar to the present form and Part II which shall include records for cargo residues only (HME and Non-HME), as described above.

A new category “e-waste” has been included in the form, which has been defined in 2012 Guidelines for the implementation of MARPOL Annex V (resolution MEPC.219(63), as amended by resolution MEPC.239(65)). According to this, e-waste generated on board means items like electronic cards, gadgets, instruments, equipment, computers, printer cartridges, etc.

All categories to be reported as per the amendments are shown in the table below.

  Part I   Part II
A Plastics J Cargo residues (non-HME)
B Food wastes K Cargo residues (HME)
C Domestic wastes
D Cooking oil
E Incinerator ashes
F Operational wastes
G Animal carcasses
H Fishing gear
I E-waste

Moreover, the new amendments include an alignment of the Regulation 10 of the Annex V (Placards, garbage management plans and garbage record-keeping) to the amended form of Garbage Record Book.An additional table is also included in Part I of the form of Garbage Record Book to ensure the records on exceptional discharges or loss of garbage under Regulation 7 (Exceptions) are kept.

Act now

Owners/ Managers/ Operators must make all necessary adjustments to comply with above amendments into their Garbage Record Book.

DBS Surveyors must ensure at the upcoming Garbage Pollution Prevention (GPP) surveys that ships comply with the above requirements.

Share this post:

Related Posts