foreign garbage in victoria?

Fair Sailing defines ‘foreign garbage’ as solid and liquid wastes removed from cruise ships.

In 2018, Tymac Launch Services contracted with the cruise lines to provide waste management services for solid and liquid waste materials from cruise ships at Ogden Point. The amount of international solid waste delivered to Hartland Landfill increased from 304 tonnes in 2018 to 2,082 tonnes in 2019. 

In 2022, Tymac reported that they offloaded 5,204 tonnes of recyclables off the cruise ships in 2019.  It appears that most of these materials are transported and recycled off-island.

The amount of liquid and hazardous materials offloaded from cruise ships at Ogden Point and their end destinations remains undisclosed.

foreign garbage ends up in our local landfill?

In 2019, cruise ship waste accounted for 1.3% of the waste received at Hartland Landfill.  The material is treated as controlled waste. High-risk international waste requires immediate deep burial in trenches.

This is in spite of the fact that in May 2021, the Capital Regional District (CRD) Board approved a new Solid Waste Management Plan for submission and approval by the Ministry. The plan has a goal of reducing waste to the regional landfill by 30% in the next ten years. Accepting foreign garbage appears to run counter to this goal.

In July 2022, the CRD Board approved an increase in the tipping fee for international high-risk cruise ship waste from $157/tonne to $500/tonne beginning January 1, 2024.

why is victoria taking garbage from ships that visit alaska?

Over the past few years, the community has been told that the reasons the cruise lines want to unload their waste in Victoria are that the Port of Seattle does not have the capacity and that unloading waste in Victoria provides a faster turn-over in Seattle. Victoria takes foreign garbage to make things easier for the cruise lines.

Most cruise ship calls to Victoria are on the last day of the Alaska cruise itinerary on their return to Seattle. The industry could hold waste one more day and return all garbage to the port-of-origin.

do ships pay for Victoria to take their garbage?

Until 2023, the charge for accepting cruise ship wastes at Hartland landfill were $157/tonne.  In July 2022, as a result of an initiative by Fair Sailing, the CRD increased the tipping fee for high risk international waste from cruise ships to $500/tonne, starting January 2024.  Low risk waste is still accepted at $157/tonne. 

Fair Sailing believes that Victoria has more value to cruise tourism than simply as a garbage dump.

what kind of SOLID WASTE MATERIALS come off the cruise ships?

In a May 2021 ‘Waterside Chat on Waste Management,’ a representative from Tymac, which provides waste removal for cruise ships at Ogden Point, was asked to describe waste items removed from cruise ships in Victoria: “we’ve seen everything.”

what happens after Waste Materials arrive at ogden point?

Large industrial trucks transport an estimated 10,000 tonnes of solid and liquid waste materials from the receiving location on Dallas Road (across from the Niagara/St. Lawrence intersection) through residential James Bay streets to Hartland Landfill and various unknown locations on Vancouver Island and the mainland. 

The trucks cause wear and tear on the roads, lead to traffic congestion, generate noise, pose safety risks to pedestrians and cyclists, carry the potential for major spills of hazardous materials, and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. 

Do cruise ships have other options to get rid of their garbage?

Yes. The cruise industry resumed the Seattle-Alaska run in 2021 without stopping at Canadian ports. Presumably, arrangements to remove waste materials in Seattle were made.  The industry has other ways of dealing with waste.