Garbage Record Book

The shipboard waste log, with an applicability threshold recently extended and the Red Sea discharge requirements in effect since 2025.

Operational Explanation

The Garbage Record Book documents the discharge at sea (where permitted) and the landing ashore of every category of waste generated on board: plastics, food waste, domestic waste, cooking oil, cargo residues, incinerator ash, operational waste, animal carcasses, fishing gear, and e-waste.

Regulatory update: since 1 May 2024 the applicability threshold has been lowered from 400 GT to 100 GT; since 1 January 2025 the Annex V discharge requirements for the Red Sea have taken effect (Res. MEPC.382(80)). Note the asymmetry: under Annex I the Special Area covers the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden (Res. MEPC.381(80)), under Annex V the Red Sea alone.

Regulatory Reference

Scope of Application

Every ship of 100 GT and above and every ship certified to carry 15 or more persons, engaged in voyages to ports or offshore terminals under the jurisdiction of another Party to the Convention (MARPOL Annex V, Regulation 10.3), and every fixed or floating platform. That last criterion is the one that keeps purely domestic traffic outside the record book requirement — precisely the traffic that the lowering of the threshold to 100 GT brought close to it.

The Garbage Management Plan has a wider scope than the record book's. The “voyages to ports of another Party” filter does not apply to the plan: that filter is in Regulation 10.3, which is the provision on the Garbage Record Book. Regulation 10.2, which requires the plan, applies to “Every ship of 100 gross tonnage and above, and every ship which is certified to carry 15 or more persons, and fixed or floating platforms”, and that is all: no filter on voyages.

The practical consequence bears on ships between 100 and 400 GT, and it is the opposite of what is usually assumed: those ships have been within the plan obligation since 1 January 2013, when res. MEPC.201(62) wrote Regulation 10.2 in the form quoted above. 1 May 2024 did not bring them into the plan: it brought them into the record book. A 100 GT ship that never leaves national waters is outside the record book requirement and inside the plan requirement, with a designated person and written procedures. Looking on board for the record book and not finding it may be correct; not finding the plan never is.

Procedure / How to Complete It

1. Categorise the waste according to the MARPOL Annex V categories (plastic, food, cooking, cargo, ash, etc.).
2. Check whether discharge at sea is permitted for that category and area. Inside a Special Area, Regulation 6 permits the discharge, always with the ship en route, of three categories only. Food wastes, provided they are comminuted or ground to pass through a screen with openings no greater than 25 mm, not less than 12 nautical miles from the nearest land or ice shelf and not contaminated by other waste: non-comminuted food wastes are prohibited. Cargo residues not recoverable by normal unloading methods, contained in hold washing water (Reg. 6.1.2), provided they contain no substances classified as HME, that both the port of departure and the next port lie within the Special Area with no transit outside it, that no adequate reception facilities are available, and again not less than 12 nautical miles out: dry cargo residues remain prohibited. And cleaning agents or additives contained in washing water, on the same conditions for holds and, for deck and external surfaces, provided they are not harmful to the marine environment (Reg. 6.2). Everything else is retained on board. Outside Special Areas the distances differ by category (Regulation 4).
3. Record date, time, position, category and estimated quantity for every discharge or landing ashore.
4. For plastics, discharge at sea is prohibited in all areas by Regulation 3. The prohibition is not absolute in the sense of admitting no exception: Regulation 7 covers discharge necessary to secure the safety of the ship and those on board or to save life at sea, accidental loss following damage to the ship or its equipment where all reasonable precautions have been taken, and accidental loss of fishing gear. These are exceptions to be documented, not operational options — which is why accidental losses must themselves be recorded in the Garbage Record Book.
5. Update the Garbage Management Plan whenever the onboard organization or the types of waste handled change.

Practical Example

The point 12°30'N 043°10'E is not in the Gulf of Aden: the southern boundary of the Red Sea is the rhumb line between “Ras si Ane (12°28.5' N, 043°19.6' E)” and “Husn Murad (12°40.4' N, 043°30.2' E)”, and a longitude of 043°10'E lies west of both endpoints, that is on the Red Sea side. The Gulf of Aden, for that matter, is not an Annex V Special Area at all: it is one under Annex I only.

The coordinate was wrong nonetheless, for another reason nobody had spotted: it falls on land. Ras si Ane — Ras Siyyan — is the easternmost headland of that stretch of the Djibouti coast, and the coast runs north-west from there; a point at the same latitude and nine miles further west is inland. The calculation uses only the IMO-published coordinate and the run of the coast, and we state it as such: we did not open a chart.

Example entry, rewritten with an offshore position: "2026-07-18, 14:20, position 19°30'N 037°20'E (Red Sea, Annex V Special Area), comminuted food waste, 0.05 m³, measured distance from the nearest land 6.2 nautical miles → discharge not permitted, the Special Area regime of Regulation 6 requiring not less than 12 nautical miles from the nearest land or ice-shelf and the ship en route → waste retained on board for landing ashore at Port Sudan."

The reason recorded matters as much as the decision. The same comminuted food waste, discharged with the ship en route beyond 12 nautical miles, would have been permitted inside the Special Area and would have been entered as a discharge. Writing «discharge not permitted in the Special Area» as a blanket reason states a rule that does not exist and, in an inspection, shows that the distance criterion has not been applied.

What Typically Goes Wrong

Common Mistakes Mistake Library

What the PSCO Checks

Operational Tips

• Check whether your ship now falls under the record book requirement following the threshold reduction to 100 GT (from 1 May 2024). The plan, by contrast, has covered it since 1 January 2013: if it is not on board, it has been missing for 11 years.
• Always keep track of the Special Areas active along your route: the Red Sea has been a Special Area since 1 January 2025.
• Never discharge plastic at sea as an operational choice; where an accidental loss or an emergency covered by Regulation 7 occurs, record it with the cause and the estimated quantity.

Preparation checklist

Educational checklist. This summary supports learning and preparation only. It does not replace the vessel’s approved procedures, manuals, statutory documents, company SMS, or applicable official requirements. Completing it demonstrates neither compliance nor readiness for an inspection: it shows that a list has been read, not that the ship is in order. Always verify the current documents carried on board.

• Garbage Management Plan present and up to date
• Waste management officer designated
• Waste categories correctly distinguished
• No voluntary discharge of plastic; every accidental loss recorded as required by Regulation 10.3
• Awareness of the Special Areas along the route

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Last substantive revision of this page: 19 August 2026 · page fingerprint 62e6c7a8a85f