GMM Safety | 2024-07-09 | Case Enviroment |

The Swedish Government plans to bring new regulations to tackle marine pollution from ships in its waters by banning scrubber water discharges.

A memorandum issued recently suggested these changes to the Ship Pollution Measures Regulation and the Sulphur Regulation.

Sweden will begin to prohibit discharges from open-loop scrubbers from July 1, 2025, and it will eventually ban discharges from other scrubbers from January 2029. The ban will apply to the territorial waters of Sweden, per reports.

Though the International Maritime Organisation’s cap on the sulfur content in fuel oil was appreciated as a much-needed step towards a sustainable shipping future, it has led to massive usage of exhaust gas cleaning systems or scrubbers.

The problem is that sulphur and several other contaminants like oil residue or heavy metals are present in the discharge wastewater.

When asked about the ban, the Infrastructure Minister of Sweden, Andreas Carlson said that the majority of shipowners in Sweden already use low sulphur fuel oil and for this reason, it is vital to bring about the ban, irrespective of ship type in the waters of Sweden.

Mattias Rust, Sweden’s Deputy Director in the Ministry of Rural Affairs and Infrastructure said that this step will hopefully promote more such bans on national and international levels, in regions like the Baltic, Northeast Atlantic and the entire European Union.

Latest research by Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology showed that there is over 200 million m3 of toxic scrubber water emptied into the Baltic Sea each year. Nations like Finland and Denmark have also put limitations on this scrubber water discharge in their territorial waters.

Reference: Inspenet