The present invention relates to a method and a system for the handling of waste materials which are, in particular produced and handled on board ships, and which can also be implemented to other transport means such as normal road transport means and the operation of trains and air crafts.

In particular one aims to renew and further develop a waste handling system to be used in marine environments such as shipping, and in particular, to be used on ships within the fishing fleet at the open sea and the off-shore fleet, where the ships are often operating at sea for long periods (days and weeks) between each time they call at a harbour and can deliver their wastes to a safe and responsible handling.

Even with today's environmental awareness and embargoes against pollution, it still happens that inorganic waste, rubbish, used oil and chemicals are dumped in the ocean. With waste one thinks of waste materials that can be deposited and can come from the operation of the ship, such as from the engine room in the form of used oil and other chemicals and special wastes that require careful handling and attention. It can also be kitchen waste from the ship's own galley for the crew and from an industrial kitchen on board a passenger ship, for example. It can also be waste materials from the transport of cargo, for example.

Today public laws and regulations regulate conditions regarding the establishing of receiving installations in all harbours (EU directive) and ships are required to deliver waste ashore (Marpol 73/78 Annex V). From French publication E-COPORT, LIFEOO ENV/F/000630, 2007-07-01 it is known to take care of waste coming to land from ships which call at the port. For handling waste there is only communication between the ship and the port authorities. It is a French regulation which sets out requirements for ship traffic as regards handling of waste, as there is an exclusive direct report between a ship and a given port.

Of these requirements we can mention the following points:

1 . A duty to dispose and register all waste in the port on arrival. 2. The ship must announce its arrival at least 24 hours before arrival time.

3. The ship must announce what type of waste it will be delivering and the

volume at least 24 hours before arrival time.

4. The port has a duty to have a system for receiving the waste and other waste which is typical for that type of ship.

5. The port must have proper and correct monitoring and control of ships as

regards the challenges involved in waste disposal. Whether the port has a secure treatment plant for waste is not something it is necessary for the ship's master to know. The fact that the port authorities have main control does not necessarily mean that all links in the laws and regulations governing ship-port- treatment plant-authorities are put together in a system such as the one in the invention.

Infrastructure for waste treatment via refuse disposal companies. From 2013 a more strict regulation regarding marine waste handling will be introduced worldwide.

It is clear that the following are not in place:

• Effective control functions that follow up on the directives of the authorities.

• An overview of the waste handling from the ocean-going fleet.

The dumping of waste material is damaging in many ways:

We pollute our own larder.

We litter and damage the coast as an adventure area.

We risk damaging the resource basis for the future.

We lose our national integrity and reputation as a serious producer of food.

It is an object of the invention to provide a waste handling solution will lead to a large environmental gain.

- It demands relatively little resources.

- It implies an effective and cheap technology.

- It can be developed quickly.

There is a great potential for an international use of the present invention. Consequently, it is an aim of the invention to provide a better control of waste handling, in particular, at sea. It is, in particular, an aim of the invention to be able to provide public authorities with a safe and non-bureaucratic tool to solve a huge environmental problem.

An aim of the invention is to provide a web-based computer solution for the handling of waste from shipping in general, and for the fleet operating at the open sea in particular.

Furthermore it is an aim to create openings for public/untraditional jobs in the different local environments along the coast.

Furthermore, one aims to utilize modern information technology to solve a large environmental problem and thus ensure the future for marine activities along the coast. The method according to the invention is characterised in that

- it uses a system that is operated in that it

reports, via the computer system of the ship to the receiving installation, the amount and type of waste that shall be delivered from the ship, to the receiving installation, and

an operator control unit adjacent to the receiving installation, including a waste handling plant, monitors and verifies the consistency between registered and real quantity and type of waste via a central database that controls the whole information flow of the waste between the various parties in the system, and that the database communicate with a public authority that sets the conditions for waste treatment of the system.

According to a preferred embodiment the amount and type of waste are registered in the receiving harbour which communicates this further via a two-way communication with a waste depositing system for reporting and confirmation of the amount and type of waste.

According to yet another preferred embodiment the waste handling plant is an integrated part of the receiving system or a separate plant for handling of waste. According to yet another preferred embodiment the amount, type and the treatment of the waste in the plant for handling of waste are reported to the data base which controls that the reported amount and type corresponds with what is reported to the receiving installation, and that the treatment in the installation is in line with the request of the public authority for such treatment.

According to yet another preferred embodiment the database is manually controlled and reports spot checks and statistical material regarding the activity of the system to the central authority that establishes the conditions which the database collects for the waste handling, as the central operator is a public authority.

According to yet another preferred embodiment a control is performed so that entered and real registered type and amount of waste corresponds mutually before acceptance of the operator serving the waste treatment installation or the database.

According to yet another preferred embodiment any regulations and initiatives from the authorities before any ship/ship owner are reported back to the database, whereby the receiving installation can stay updated about any extra initiatives against the ship next time it shall arrive at the port and deliver waste.

The system for handling of waste from ships in accordance with the regulations for safe waste depositing, and encompassing a receiving installation on land, is characterised in that it is composed for mutual communication between the ship, the receiving installation, a central data base, an plant for treating waste and a central public authority which set the conditions for the waste handling in the system.

According to a preferred embodiment the receiving installation is in a two-way communication with the vessel and the installation for waste handling, and may communicate with the database.

According to yet another a preferred embodiment the receiving installation for waste is connected, via a two-way communication, to the waste handling system which in turn communicates independently with the database.

According to yet another preferred embodiment the waste handling plant is an integrated part of the receiving system or is a separate plant for handling of waste.

According to yet another preferred embodiment the base representing the public authority, communicates two-way with the base and the vessel. According to yet another preferred embodiment the central data base is manually or automatic controlled, and arranged to report spot checks and statistical material regarding the activity of the system to the central authority that establishes the conditions which the database collects for the waste handling, as the central operator is a public authority

According to the invention the method and system are used for the handling of waste from transport means such as ships, airplanes and trains, for tourist companies, restaurants and industrial kitchen systems.

The invention shall be explained with reference to the enclosed figure which is an outline in the form of a flow diagram that shows the different elements/operators of the invented system, and how they are mutually connected together. A central database is shown by 10. In this base 10 all public regulations are stored that relate to types of waste and the handling of these, and the necessary technical data about all ships that are registered and take part in the system is stored so that one obtain an overview of possible kinds of waste that may exist from the individual vessel. This base is operated manually so that the overall control of all operations in the system lies here.

The central unit 10 communicates with the authorities shown by the box 12 in the figure. There is a two-way communication between the responsible

authority/operator 12 and the base 10, but all control takes place in the base unit 10 that stores all information in order to control the flow of waste associated with the ship. This communication implies that the base 10 is updated at all times about the public regulations given by the authority 12 for this activity and can communicate the public need for reports, controls, and spot checks for the generation of statistics. The vessel shown by 14 encompasses its own computer system in two-way communication with the base 10 to receive information/duties from the base/operator 10 and return information of its own status to the base, and

is in two-way communication with the computer system of the receiving harbour 16. The latter means that the vessel sends info about relevant waste to the receiving harbour 16 which then confirms with a receipt. This means that the receiving harbour base checks that there is agreement between what is reported in advance and what is actually delivered from the ship. The receiving harbour also communicates two- ways with the base 12 and the ships master may keep himself updated regarding the requests set by the authorities 12 via two-way communication lines as shown in the figures. The detail 18 in the figure relates to the land-based waste treating installation that further processes the waste which is collected from the receiving harbour 16. The base in the installation 18 also has two-way communication with the computer in the harbour 16 that relates to the need for treatment and depositing and verification and confirmations are transmitted both ways.

The company base 18 also communicates with the main database 10 to present reports and verifications.

Explanation of the flow diagram.

Before the vessel calls at a port the captain shall report to the receiving harbour how much, and also what categories of waste he shall deliver when they arrive at the harbour. Onboard the vessel, the crew already has performed the necessary pre- separation of the waste to be delivered, such as food waste, used oil, chemicals or other plastic/wooden waste, and special waste.

When the vessel has delivered the reported waste, the harbour checks that the reported waste amount is in accordance to the amount and categories as reported by the captain. The ship may also connect itself to the public base 12 to keep updated of the current regulations at the moment, and further the authorities 12 may by itself submit information and up-dates back to the vessel. Also between the central base 10 and the ship a two-way communication is provided.

When the waste delivery from the vessel has been found to be in order, the harbour confirms back to the vessel that the waste has been registered and the captain has received documentation that waste has been delivered ashore from the vessel. If this is not in agreement with the report from the vessel, the amount of waste must be registered correctly before it is approved by the receiving harbour. The database 16 of the receiving harbour enters that reported amount and type of waste from the vessel 14 into the database.

The receiving harbour 16 reports this amount of waste to the regional/municipal waste handling plant/ (refuse company) 18 which is responsible for collecting the waste from the harbour. This installation may be located as a part of harbor area, or be a separate plant, for example a normal municipal or private installation, includes normally a combustion plant for residual waste, a site for source separation, composting of food waste, for handling oil residues, chemicals or other

plastic/wooden waste and special waste delivered from the ship.

The refuse company reports/verifies received amount of waste back to the receiving harbour and to the database 10. If there is no agreement between the reported details from the receiving harbour 16, and with respect to the originally reported details (type/amount) from the ship 14, the waste amount must be registered correctly before it is approved by the refuse company 18. Furthermore, the overall control and responsibility lies with the database 10 and the manual control takes place here. In this way, the reported amount of waste by the vessel is controlled/verified by several operators in the system and the risk for misreporting/cheating with the reported amount of waste is much reduced.

The database reports all receiving of waste from vessels to the authorities. If a vessel does not deliver waste when calling at a port, this will be discovered in the database. If the vessel over time and at several port calls does not deliver waste with respect to the standard amount according to the type of ship/crew, the authorities can initiate actions against the vessel (ship owner/captain), something which is based on the information that is exchanged between the base 10 and the authorities 12 (see the flow diagram). This implies also, of course, that the authorities 12 have final instruction power over the base 10, i.e. the operator in the unit 10 must take into consideration the demands and regulations that are imposed by this authority. Thus dumping of waste into the water in the ocean may be avoided. The authorities 12 report back to the database 10 which actions have been initiated against the ship owner/captain and who is thereby censured for improper handling of the waste on board the vessel. A relevant action may involve that the ship/ship owners receives a remark as to what must be changed, or whether a penalty should be given, or the port of call may reject waste delivery from the ship.