Finland bans scrubber wastewater discharge
The Finnish government has banned the discharge of scrubber washwater into the country’s territorial waters, according to the non-profit Baltic Sea Action Group (BSAG).
IMAGE: Scrubber fitted on a ship. Getty Images
The first stage of implementation that came into force on 1 July, covers cargo ships sailing with open-loop scrubbers within Finland’s maritime territory.
The country has banned discharge from all open-loop scrubbers as well as toilet wastewater, BSAG said.
The Finnish Parliament decided to prohibit the discharge of wastewater from cargo ships into the Baltic Sea in Finland's territorial waters in December last year.
“The ship discharge bans promoted by the Baltic Sea Action Group will enter into force in stages as of today,” BSAG said in a statement yesterday.
Scrubbers or exhaust gas cleaning systems (EGCS) allow ships to comply with the International Maritime Organizations' 0.5% sulphur cap by capturing sulphur dioxide from exhaust gases.
While the shipping and oil industries maintain that scrubbers are effective in mitigating pollution, opposition voices like the Clean Arctic Alliance argue that scrubbers are an outdated solution.
As a part of the second stage, discharges from all scrubbers, which include closed-loop scrubbers, will be banned from 1 January 2029. “The discharge of grey water into the sea will be prohibited from the beginning of 2030,” according to the statement. Grey water refers to wastewater generated from sinks, showers and laundry.
Open-loop scrubbers use seawater to clean the exhaust gas. The washwater is then released back into the sea. Closed-loop scrubbers use fresh water for cleaning instead of seawater.
While the EU lacks a uniform legislation banning scrubber washwater discharge, many countries and ports within the union have already restricted these discharges in specific areas of their national waters.
Denmark and Sweden also have restrictions on washwater discharge from open-loop scrubbers from the respective coastlines, effective 1 July 2025.
By Aparupa Mazumder
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