A review on ship-generated oily waste management at ports: current practices, challenges and future directions

The ship-generated oily wastes are noxious to the environment and have a high potential for valorisation. In its first annexe, the Marine Pollution Convention prohibits discharging it in the sea and obliges ports to provide adequate reception facilities to ships. This study provides a conceptual literature review of ports’ oily waste management, to identify best control practices. It identifies four main research questions: the first focuses on demand forecasting, factors of influence, and modelling techniques. The second set of issues pertains to the waste handling at ships, the reception evaluation criteria and optimisation, and the collection vehicles fleet and routing. The third concerns the regulations, the oily waste composition and the treatment processes. Lastly, the paper addresses the challenges and analogies of ship-generated oily waste networks with other waste systems. Oily waste is categorised into oil in water and water in oil. Unlike the first one, the second is highly concentrated in petroleum particles, more profitable and requires less transport and treatment costs. The sorting of oily waste and the primary treatment is privileged at the source to release the transportation costs. The stakeholders have different interests; therefore, the storage sites, the treatment locations and the transportation policies have to be a satisfactory compromise. Governance should engage with long-term and sustainable policies on issues and concerns of the oily waste management system. The findings are practical for the port authorities and the outsourced private operators collecting and treating oily waste.