Garbage: what may go overboard, and where

Oil, garbage & sewage · Power & sail

The Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and MARPOL Annex V (amended 2013) apply to US recreational boats wherever they are. Plastics may never go overboard; nothing at all in rivers, lakes, bays or the Great Lakes; offshore only food scraps, at set distances. Boats 26 ft and up need a placard; some 40 ft and up need a written plan.

What may never go overboard

• No plastic, and no garbage mixed with plastic, may go into any waters: that includes synthetic rope, synthetic fishing net and plastic garbage bags. Bring it ashore (33 CFR 151.67).
• Since the 2013 rules, every other kind of garbage is also banned at sea except food waste (cargo residues and animal carcasses aside, which concern ships): paper, rags, glass, metal, bottles, crockery, packing material and cooking oil stay aboard for disposal ashore (33 CFR 151.69(a)).
• "Garbage" covers food, domestic and operational waste, all plastics, cooking oil, fishing gear and animal carcasses. Fresh fish and fish parts from fishing on the trip are not garbage (33 CFR 151.05).
• The rules apply to US recreational boats wherever they are, and to foreign boats in US waters (33 CFR 151.51(a)).

Rivers, lakes, bays and the Great Lakes

• No garbage of any kind may be discharged into US navigable waters, which the rule defines as the internal waters plus the territorial sea (33 CFR 151.66(a); 33 CFR 151.05). That means rivers, lakes, bays, sounds and harbors are no-dump waters.
• On the Great Lakes and their connecting and tributary waters the same total ban applies; the offshore food-waste allowance does not apply there (33 CFR 151.66; 33 CFR 151.69(a)).
• Wash water with cleaning agents or additives may go overboard only if those substances are not harmful to the marine environment (33 CFR 151.66(a)).

Offshore: food waste only

• Outside special areas, the only garbage a recreational boat may discharge is food waste, and only while under way and as far from land as practicable (33 CFR 151.69(b)).
• Food waste that has not been ground: never less than 12 nautical miles from the nearest land (33 CFR 151.69(b)(1)).
• Food waste ground fine enough to pass a screen with openings no larger than 25 mm (1 inch): never less than 3 nautical miles from the nearest land (33 CFR 151.69(b)(1); 33 CFR 151.75).
• Garbage that mixes types with different rules must follow the strictest rule or be kept aboard (33 CFR 151.69(d)). Discharges to save life or the boat, accidental loss after damage, and food waste that is an imminent health risk aboard are excepted (33 CFR 151.77).

Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico) and the Caribbean

• The Wider Caribbean Region is a MARPOL special area and its garbage restrictions are in effect (33 CFR 151.53). The rule defines it to include the Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico), the Caribbean Sea, and part of the Atlantic, including waters off the Atlantic coast of Florida and around the Bahamas; see 33 CFR 151.06(a)(12) for the boundary.
• Inside a special area only food waste may go overboard, and only if it is ground (25 mm screen), not mixed with other garbage, the boat is under way, and it is at least 12 nautical miles from the nearest land (33 CFR 151.71(b); 33 CFR 151.75).

Placard, written plan and records

• US boats 26 feet or longer must display one or more garbage placards where crew and passengers can read them. Each must be at least 20 cm (8 in) wide by 12.5 cm (5 in) high, durable and legible (33 CFR 151.51(e); 33 CFR 151.59(a)-(b)).
• The placard must state the discharge rules that apply to the boat and should say that garbage is banned in US navigable waters, plastics are banned everywhere, violators face civil and criminal penalties, and state and local rules may also apply. Great Lakes boats may use a Great Lakes wording (33 CFR 151.59(c)-(d)).
• The current US rule sets no language requirement for the garbage placard (33 CFR 151.59). MARPOL itself, per IMO, asks for the crew's working language plus English, French or Spanish on international voyages.
• A written garbage management plan is required on a manned oceangoing boat 40 feet or longer, documented or state-numbered, that is engaged in commerce or has a galley and berthing (33 CFR 151.51(d)(1)).
• The plan must describe how garbage is minimized, collected, processed, stored and discharged, and name the person in charge of carrying it out; everyone handling garbage must follow it (33 CFR 151.57).
• A garbage record book is not required on typical recreational boats: it applies to oceangoing ships of 400 gross tons and above and to ships certified to carry 15 or more people on international voyages (33 CFR 151.51(c); 33 CFR 151.55). Marina disposal receipts can still help show compliance (33 CFR 151.63(b)).

The rules: 33 CFR 151.05 · 33 CFR 151.06 · 33 CFR 151.51 · 33 CFR 151.53 · 33 CFR 151.55 · 33 CFR 151.57 · 33 CFR 151.59 · 33 CFR 151.63 · 33 CFR 151.66 · 33 CFR 151.67 · 33 CFR 151.69 · 33 CFR 151.71 · 33 CFR 151.75 · 33 CFR 151.77

Sources disagree on How far offshore the total garbage ban in "navigable waters" (33 CFR 151.66) reaches — left out rather than guessed. Check your local authority.

A plain-language summary of federal rules for recreational boats, checked against the rules’ own text and a second source, and written in our own words. It isn’t legal advice. States add rules of their own, and rules change — the links above go to the current official text.