The water was trickling past the hull as our S&S sloop Sunstone wafted along a mill pond that was the North Pacific, writes Tom and Vicky Jackson.

We could look down into a deep blue ocean thousands of metres deep and wonder at the life below.

It was a tranquil day on passage from Hawaii to Kodiak in Alaska, a thousand sea miles from any continent.

But looking more closely gave a sharp reminder of man’s impact on the oceans.

We could see floating plastic all around us – plastic bottles, polyprop line, broken plastic containers – all evidence of rubbish dumped at sea.

Most of us are aware that the oceans are filled with plastic rubbish that will be floating around for decades.

On Pacific atolls and on Caribbean Islands, where there is no town nor even a village for miles, beachcombing on the windward side will not only turn up beautiful shells but also cola bottles, fishing floats, old rope, plastic containers, shoes and light bulbs.

Sailors need to take rubbish disposal seriously.

Rubbish, trash, garbage – whatever you call it, it’s a mess.

On land disposal of waste is relatively easy, but once aboard a yacht, it can be a problem, especially after weeks or even months out cruising.

Many countries have increasingly strict regulations about what can be disposed of over the side, and how far offshore.

Regulations are one way forward, but awareness and good practice are also vital.

Dealing with rubbish at sea: Where do you start?

Once you’ve been on board for a few days there’s likely to be a mounting collection of plastic bottles, biscuit wrappers, orange peel, beer cans, mouldy bread, empty tins, food scraps, dirty paper towels and a wine bottle filling the rubbish bag in the galley.

So how can you manage this?

We need to start at the supermarket.

The trolley is full and you are at the checkout with the assistant scanning the items. Now is the time for some ‘unpacking’, before the items even go into your carrier bags.

Many foodstuffs have more than one layer of packaging, and the outer plastic or cardboard can be removed and disposed of straight away into a rubbish bin.

You might not know later what all the ingredients are, and you may have to make a note of the use-by date, but surely that’s a small price to pay.

On board the boat there is more to do.

Decanting products into your own reusable containers means more outer packaging can be thrown away before you depart.

In some countries, you will have to use your own containers as certain food products are only sold loose.

In New Zealand, for instance, instant coffee does not come in jars, and laundry soap is much cheaper in refill soft plastic sacs.

In many smaller Pacific islands, most food items will come in paper bags.

Longer-term rubbish management requires a few crew regulations.

On board Sunstone we have two different receptacles for rubbish and a third ‘collection point’.

The first receptacle is a small plastic bucket, which takes all the biodegradable rubbish and paper trash. The second is the swing bin near the galley sink, which takes all the plastic rubbish, and the third ‘collection point’ near the sink is for tins and beer cans.

Rubbish at sea: Biodegradables

The biodegradable contents of the bucket can be disposed of over the side when we are a few miles from the shore, so long as the waters are open and tidal.

All the pieces in the bucket are small: we tear up paper and cut up larger food items so they will biodegrade more easily or slip quickly into the food chain.

Rubbish at sea: Plastics

The contents of the swing bin never goes over the side, but anything that has been in contact with food/liquids must be washed if it is going to be kept for some days, weeks or months.

A sea-water pump in the galley is essential for this kind of washing, unless you have large quantities of fresh water.

Milk and juice cartons can be swilled out with sea water, plastic wrapping around meat and cheese must be washed off, and containers for cottage cheese, butter, paté and cream must also be thoroughly washed clean.

Even small scraps of food on containers will start to smell after a few days, especially in tropical climates.

Some pots can find other uses.

We save cottage cheese and sour cream containers, and some tin cans, for use in varnishing, painting and mixing epoxy glues.

As well being clean, items going into the plastics bin need to take up as little space as possible.

UHT milk cartons can be squashed flat, and wrappers can be tied into a knot.

Plastic wrappings which behave in an unruly manner can be compressed and strapped with masking tape to reduce their size considerably.

Plastic bottles used for fresh milk and soft drinks pose another problem.

After use, we wash them, then cut the top and bottom off with some heavy scissors.

Then the body of the bottle is cut in half lengthwise so the two sides cup together for storage.

Clam-shell packaging is the worst of all to manage.

The best way is probably to cut up the plastic and try to stack the different shapes so they fit one into another.

Better still is to get rid of it before you leave.

Rubbish at sea: Tins and cans

Empty cans can accumulate rapidly. There is some debate about metal disposal at sea.

Some say cans and tins degrade so slowly they should never be thrown overboard.

But they do degrade, at least as quickly, or more quickly, than in a landfill site.

Clearly, cans should not be jettisoned close to shore where they may be washed onto beaches or affect coastal fishing.

But in deep oceanic water, we feel that sinking cans is reasonable.

We puncture them with four or more holes to make sure they sink.

In more confined waters our ‘collection point’ for cans will soon look full.

Sometimes we twist and squash alloy beer cans, leaving them nearly flat. If a tin-opener is used to take the bottom off a tin as well as the top, they too can be squashed nearly flat for later disposal ashore.

Rubbish at sea: Glass

Even more debate exists among environmentalists about how to dispose of glass, which takes a very, very long time to degrade.

On longer passages, we carry very little of it, and when coastal cruising bottles should be retained for disposal ashore in recycling bins.

What about bonfires?

On very extended cruises it may be necessary to burn some rubbish.

This should be done between the low and high tide marks on a beach, in calm winds and when others are not around.

The smoke can be a nuisance to others and will to some extent pollute the air.

It is essential to make sure the fire is fully out at the end.

All items should be incinerated until very little remains.

With low-heat fires, as on a beach, it is almost impossible to completely burn certain plastic and there will be charred remains.

When cool these should be ideally picked up and disposed of on land. Remember to leave no evidence of your activities.

Trash entertainment

The disposal of rubbish can even be a daily highlight on a long passage.

The crossing of the southern Indian Ocean from Simonstown (near Cape Town) in South Africa to Fremantle in Western Australia was Sunstone’s longest passage.

Every day around 1730, after we had eaten supper, the bio-rubbish contents of the plastic bucket would be thrown over the side.

The albatross, shearwaters, petrels and fairy prions would be swooping nearby in preparation.

Then they would dive down and fight over the food scraps. They really did learn that 1730 was ‘dinner time’.

Rodent patrol

For your own and others’ health, never leave rubbish bags outside on the deck of your boat or on the nearby dock if tied up to the shore.

We did once. It was a long walk along the pontoons to the rubbish skip and it seemed easier to have a bin on the after-deck which could be emptied twice a week.

We wondered at first why the small dustbin had corners nibbled out of it.

Then it dawned – unwelcome brown rodents were making a meal of our scraps.

We immediately removed the dustbin as we certainly did not want rats on board.

In warmer climes, other pests like cockroaches and flies will be attracted to rubbish, and we even try to avoid marina berths close to a rubbish bin when these are located on the pontoons.

Rubbish etiquette

There is some etiquette to rubbish management too.

If your first contact with locals after many weeks at sea is in some very small, remote village, it is hardly fair to leave them all your plastic sacks to deal with.

Many remote communities have enough problems keeping their own village tidy and pest-free.

You must keep your bags until you reach somewhere larger where there is a formalised system for the collection and disposal of rubbish.

In far-flung places meeting another yacht is definitely a reason for a ‘sundowner’.

But as well as taking a contribution to the other yacht in the form of drinks and/or food, it is cruiser etiquette to take your rubbish home with you.

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