Challenges and countermeasures for international ship waste management: IMO, China, United States, and EU

Shipping has become an essential mode of cargo transportation in the world and the number of global ships is also on the rise, along with the increasing marine environment pollution caused by ship waste. Various countries and regions have attached increasing importance to the pollution caused by ship waste in recent years. How to address ship waste management from international shipping has been brought to the official agenda of the international community. This article starts with the ship waste management framework in the international maritime sector and compares and analyzes the regulatory challenges of ship waste management faced by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and typical countries and regions such as China, the United States, and the European Union, by analyzing the issues in their international maritime ship waste management regulations, including inconsistent and unclear standards, inadequate law enforcement efforts, and blind spots in high seas supervision. Targeting these challenges, this article proposes measures and directions for future supervision and stresses the necessity to unify ship waste discharge standards, improve port facilities, clarify standards, strengthen supervision and law enforcement, and establish a global monitoring system. This article lists the challenges of international maritime ship waste management and proposes practical countermeasures, which will help the international community better supervise ship waste discharge and reduce marine environment pollution.