Food Waste

Animal waste from "industrial farming" is a major environmental issue. As the links Eagle posted show, disposal of chicken waste on the Delmarva Peninsula is a real issue and has had major effects on water quality in the Bay. Even though cities such as DC do dump major amounts of sewage into the watershed, their contribution is dwarfed by the animal waste issue.

As an example, in 1995, near where my son lives in NC, a retention pond from hog waste from an industrial producer (he had approximately 10,000 hogs in his operation at one time!) failed and dumped some 25,000,000 gallons of hog waste in a tributary of the New River. Every living thing for a six mile stretch of water was killed! Oxygen levels, causing fish kills, where affected all the way down to Snead's Ferry. Oysters carried toxins from the spill for several years after. The hog "waste", more commonly know as hog crap (minding the words here!), all 25,000,000 gallons, was stored in an 8 acre, open, man-made "lagoon". This is the hog producers' "best practices" method. The producer was fined like $50,000.

The more unbelievable thing is that there has been no substantial change in waste disposal method for these operations since then. Just build bigger, stronger retention ponds! Additional regulations have been consistently beaten back by the industry.

Imagine the hue and cry if a politician proposed storing human waste in open "retention ponds!"

Sorry for the rant, but this is those things that really, really bugs me!

I think the correct approach depends where you are. If you are in an area where there is good dockside disposal and your trip is short, dispose of all of your food waste on land. Locally for me, this would be Puget Sound and the lower Georgia Strait. As you move further away from civilization and your trip is longer, separate the food waste from the plastics, etc, put it in a blender and whiz it up for disposal over board in an area where there are strong tidal currents. Animal waste products are more easily broken down in the ocean than vegetable and fruit peels. Small amounts of clean dry paper and card board could be burned in a campfire on shore where allowed. The rest of the material should be separated for recycling and stowed. Try to minimize your footprint on the environment and try to do your part.

Jim, retiring marine biologist.

JDCAVE said:

I think the correct approach depends where you are. If you are in an area where there is good dockside disposal and your trip is short, dispose of all of your food waste on land. Locally for me, this would be Puget Sound and the lower Georgia Strait. As you move further away from civilization and your trip is longer, separate the food waste from the plastics, etc, put it in a blender and whiz it up for disposal over board in an area where there are strong tidal currents. Animal waste products are more easily broken down in the ocean than vegetable and fruit peels. Small amounts of clean dry paper and card board could be burned in a campfire on shore where allowed. The rest of the material should be separated for recycling and stowed. Try to minimize your footprint on the environment and try to do your part.

Jim, retiring marine biologist.

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Well said Jim.
I'ts not that hard to give this planet a bit of respect. It certainly gives us plenty of enjoyment.

The only waste I hesitate to keep aboard is coffee grounds. We can otherwise easily/conveniently manage 10 days or so of landbound trash.

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