Meriaura Group stops using bottled water on its vessels to reduce waste

18. December 2020

Meriaura Group intends to stop using bottled water on its vessels as part of the company’s Zero
Waste Fleet program. During autumn 2020 the company has installed drinking water dispensers
on its dry cargo vessels. At sea, drinking water is very commonly purchased in bottles, partly out of
habit, but also for hygiene reasons, as ships’ tank water does not always meet hygiene
requirements. Vessels operating in the tramp market constantly visit various ports around the
Baltic and North Seas, and the quality of tank water varies depending on where the vessel’s tanks
are filled. Plastic bottles are a significant single source of plastic waste generated on ships. Thanks
to the activated carbon filter system and drinking water dispensers installed on Meriaura Group’s
vessels, the crew will be able to drink tank water, and bottled drinking water no longer needs to
be purchased.

“Unitor’s drinking water dispensers installed on our ships keep the drinking water cool, and water
quality is tested regularly. We hope that other shipping companies will follow our example; this is
an easy way to significantly reduce the amount of plastic waste generated onboard,” says Ville
Koskinen, Managing Director of VG-Shipping Oy. “Baltic Sea protection has played an important
role in our actions over the past year, both through our onboard waste reduction program, and
the gypsum treatment project performed by Meriaura,” Koskinen continues.

A year ago, Meriaura Group launched a project for minimizing the environmental footprint of its
fleet and protecting the seas. The goal of the project is to create standards for all ships on practices
for reducing consumption and waste, increasing recycling and reuse of material, minimizing food
waste and directing meals to a more environmentally and climate-friendly direction, and better
and more efficient wastewater treatment. As the first action of the project, the Meriaura Group
instructed its vessels not to release any grey and black waters into the sea, even though this would
still be possible within the framework of the legislation, and thus unfortunately still happens in the
fragile Baltic Sea.

For more information please contact:
Thomas Friis, Development Manager, Meriaura Group
thomas.friis@vg-shipping.fi tel. +358 40 705 39 39
Ville Koskinen, Managing Director, VG-Shipping Ltd.
ville.koskinen@vg-shipping.fi tel. +358 40 584 81 79