Ship-generated waste management in Istanbul ports: An analytical methodology to evaluate waste reception performance (WRP)

Abstract

Ship-generated pollutants constitute a significant portion of marine pollution, prompting the International Maritime Organization to regulate this issue. European countries have also adopted the 2000/59/EC directive on port reception facilities, and environmental performance indicators have gained prominence in European ports. This study examines two ports, Ambarli and Haydarpasa, located in Istanbul, Turkiye, a European Union candidate country. The research compares port size and computes their waste reception performance (WRP) indices: ship-based WRP, waste-type-based WRP, and waste-amount-based WRP. Additionally, statistical analysis with the Spearman correlation test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Mann-Whitney U tests are applied to observe the relation between the number of ships and waste reception amounts. This study enhances ship-generated waste management using port performance indicators to mitigate pollution. The performance indices reveal that although Ambarli's port size is larger than that of Haydarpasa, the WRP of Haydarpasa is significantly larger than that of Ambarli. This difference can be attributed to the greater waste volume generated by general cargo ships compared with container ships. Given the differences between terminal types, it is evident that there is no "one size fits all" policy approach, and mitigation strategies need to be tailored to the characteristics of each port.