XN000022-1972-08-05 — Page 4

Saturday, August 5, 1972

The spokesman recalled that in 1968, a similar service was introduced

for a trial period of six months. At that time it was not free and ships

making use of it were charged $36 an hour.

The service was discontinued at the end of the trial period when less

than five per cent of the ships made use of it,

Last year, the Marine Department conducted a feasibility study of

providing a free collection service and this revealed that if the service was

free, it would probably be well used.

As a result, a free service was introduced last month.

Two motor cargo boats now visit ships which have been in port for at

least 48 hours to collect domestic refuse.

Ship owners and their agents can also telephone the Pollution Control

Unit at H-450181, Ext. 270 requesting the service.

At present about 25 ships are visited every day but only about one

third of them actually use the service.

The spokesman said that the service was not going as well as one would

have hoped mainly because of the lack of co-operation from ships officers and

crew.

He said that the Marine Department had issued a notice to all shipping

egents asking them to inform masters of ships of this service, and it was hoped

that better co-operation would result in the future.

With the introduction of the three new services, the Marine Department's

harbour cleansing fleet has been boosted to 30 vessels.

In the meantime, the spokesman said, the Department was investigating

other forms of refuse collection to cope with the problem of harbour pollution,

while a further expansion of the present fleet was also under consideration.

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