Meriaura Group has revealed its ambitions of creating a zero-waste fleet.
The research collaboration with the Finnish Transport Safety Agency (Trafi) for reducing ship-generated waste was firstly announced in late 2018.
“Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the air emissions of shipping, which at Meriaura Group we have tried to reduce by increasing the use of bio-oil in our fleet, using low-sulphur fuel and reducing the overall fuel consumption, for example by combining cargos and with accurate route planning,” Ville Koskinen, Managing Director of VG-Shipping, said.
He also added that the ability of ports to handle and receive different waste materials are crucial for minimizing the environmental footprint of vessels.
In the first project phase, ideas from Meriaura ships are collected for the practical implementation of the abovementioned issues.
In the next phase of the project, scheduled for autumn 2019, Meriaura plans to create standards for all the fleet’s practices aimed at reducing consumption, improving recycling and reuse of materials as well as minimizing food waste.
“The goal of our project is to make the VG-Shipping fleet the least waste producing fleet by the end of 2020. Our broader goal is to make this a standard for the whole industry. Legislation on the discharges to the sea and MARPOL also need tightening,” he pointed out.
