Size matters? Evaluating the drivers of waste from ships at ports in Europe

With the aim of reducing the incentive to illegally discharge waste and contributing to the protection of the sea from contamination, all ships that stopover in a European Union port are obliged to pay a tariff, whether they deliver waste or not. In the majority of European ports a single tariff, based on ship size, includes the delivery of oily waste and garbage. With the aim of determining if other factors also affect waste generation, a database with almost 6000 observations has been constructed to evaluate key drivers related to ship technology, route and the people on board. The results show that the main driver in the generation of oily waste is ship size while the main factor in the generation of garbage is people on board of ships. These results point to the usefulness of establishing a differential tariff for each type of waste.