Cruise ships 'use Canadian coast as toilet bowl for dumping waste'

From the comfort of world-class cruise ships, a trip to Alaska offers magnificent views of glaciers, untamed national parks and visits to seaside towns.

- Richa Syal

 These draws have made Alaska cruises the most popular domestic holiday for Americans.

But the journey to those pristine areas, which involves sailing along the western edge of Canada's coast for two to three days, is leaving behind a trail of toxic waste, including within marine protected areas (MPAs).

More than 31bn litres of inadequately treated pollution is estimated to be discharged off the west coast of Canada annually by cruise ships on their way to and from Alaska, according to a report by environmental organisations Stand.earth and West Coast Environmental Law (WCEL).

"There's this perverse incentive to treat Canada like a toilet bowl," says Anna Barford, Canada shipping campaigner at Stand.earth. "They're just using us like a highway and tossing stuff left, right and centre." Across Canada's three coastlines, vessels generate 147bn litres of harmful waste each year, equivalent to 59,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to a March 2022 report by WWF Canada. Based on data from more than 5,000 vessels, the report found cruise ships were the largest polluters, despite making up only 2% of the ship traffic analysed.

Pollution includes toxic sewage from toilets, grey water from sinks, showers and laundry facilities and bilge water - the oily liquid that collects at the lowest part of a ship.

The largest source of pollution identified in the WWF report was from scrubbers. These devices, installed to remove exhaust gases from marine fuel, create an acidic wastewater containing a cocktail of chemicals. On a one-week trip to Alaska and back along the Canadian coast, a cruise ship will generate nearly 200m litres of waste from scrubbers, according to the report by Stand.earth and WCEL. While ships can decide whether to discharge at sea or in port, most waste from scrubbers is dumped as it is generated.