with better facilities, so port operators continually modify terminals, equipment, and services to reflect changes in vessels and shipping operations (Atkins, undated). Thus, there is a symbiotic relationship between vessels and their ports of call. Viewing the vessel and port as a system (henceforth referred to as the vessel garbage management system) significantly improves prospects for control and opens the door to solutions, fleet by fleet.

This chapter examines the vessel garbage management system, exploring each element and what is needed to integrate vessel garbage into the system for handling land-generated waste. The introduction describes the principles of integrated waste management and how they apply in the maritime setting. The core of the chapter has two parts: an assessment of on-board garbage handling practices and technologies, and an assessment of port reception facilities and practices. The challenge is to maximize the garbage handling capabilities of both the vessel and port and then establish a seamless interface. If this can be achieved, then the goal of full Annex V implementation can be achieved. The final section of the chapter examines four issues that pose barriers to the internal integration of the system: quarantine requirements for vessels arriving from foreign shores, implementation of the Coast Guard's Certificate of Adequacy (COA) program and other requirements for ports, port operators' liability for handling vessel garbage, and financing—both who should pay for garbage services and how they should pay.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines an integrated solid waste management system (ISWMS) as ''a practice of using several alternative waste management techniques to manage and dispose of specific components of the municipal solid waste stream. Waste management alternatives include source reduction, recycling, composting, energy recovery, and landfilling'' (ICF, Inc., 1989). Managers of ISWMS for land-generated waste select and employ these technical alternatives based on analysis of their needs, careful planning, and technical and economic evaluations of options.

Implementation of Annex V to date has been guided—or misguided—by a perception that the effort to implement controls over vessel garbage should be separated from other initiatives to control land-generated solid waste. In fact, vessel garbage is simply a poorly controlled solid waste stream that, logic dictates, would best be managed using principles and systems similar to those developed for land-generated waste. Integration of the two systems, rather than development of redundant and parallel regimes for vessel garbage, could simplify implementation of Annex V and minimize the burdens on regulatory agencies and the regulated mariners and ports, in that all could pursue compliance with a