Amendment to treaty on dumping of waste at sea will remove sewage sludge from list of wastes which may be given dumping permit.

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The amendment to the London Protocol will remove sewage sludge from the list of permissible wastes – wastes which may be considered for dumping at sea.

Parties to the treaties which regulate the dumping of wastes at sea have adopted an amendment to ensure that the dumping of sewage sludge at sea would be prohibited worldwide.

London Convention

The “Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter 1972”, the “London Convention” for short, is one of the first global conventions to protect the marine environment from human activities and has been in force since 1975.

Seage sludge amendment

The amendment to the London Protocol will remove sewage sludge from the list of permissible wastes – wastes which may be considered for dumping at sea.

The amendment was adopted by the 44th Consultative Meeting of Contracting Parties to the London Convention and the 17th Meeting of Contracting Parties to the London Protocol (LC 44/LP 17), which met at the international Maritime Organization (IMO) Headquarters from 3-7 October 2022. IMO is the Secretariat for both treaties.

The amendment will enter into force for each Contracting Party immediately on notification of its acceptance, or 100 days after the date of the adoption if that is later.

Sewage sludge is a waste that has been considered for dumping at sea under both the London Convention and London Protocol. Decades ago, a substantial volumes of sewage sludge was permitted to be dumped at sea. However, the London Convention and Protocol parties previously commissioned a world-wide review of current practices of managing or dumping sewage sludge at sea.

Meeting of the Contracting Parties

The last meeting concluded that the practice had declined considerably over recent decades, that it was already prohibited under many regional conventions and through domestic legislation, and that alternatives existed for the use of the sewage sludge.

The Contracting Parties agreed that there was sufficient evidence and justification for amending Annex 1 of the London Protocol to remove sewage sludge from the list of permissible wastes. The proposal to amend the treaty was submitted by the Republic of Korea and Mexico.

Under the London Protocol all dumping is prohibited, except for possibly acceptable wastes on the so-called “reverse list” (Annex 1). The list of materials which may be considered for dumping at sea will now include: dredged material (the bulk of material given permits); fish wastes; inert, inorganic geological material; specific bulky items; vessels and platforms or other manmade structures at sea; organic material of natural origin; and carbon dioxide (CO2) streams from carbon dioxide capture processes.

The full text of the news release from the International Maritime Organisation can be read here.