Reduce your impact on the marine environment

Oil on vessels—such as fuel and lubricants—can contaminate other wastes like bilge water and rags used for cleaning. While oil spills from accidents involving very large ships often gain public attention, a lot of oil enters the marine environment from day-to-day operations, small leaks, poor maintenance or deliberate dumping.

You can help minimise the possibility of oil leaks from your operation by:

• Disposing of used oil, oily rags and filters at appropriate oil recycling facilities.
• Taking care when refuelling and where possible refuelling on land rather than over water.
• Keeping a small kit of absorbent material on board to clean up any waste oil in the bilge or accidental spills.
• Cleaning and servicing your vessel’s engine regularly and repairing oil and fuel leaks promptly.

Read more about protecting the marine environment [1].