NEW STRATEGIES FOR THE WASTE MANAGEMENT IN THE BLACK SEA REGION Carmen Gasparotti 1 Alina Răileanu 2 and Eugen Rusu 1 1 University “Dunarea de Jos”, Naval Architecture Faculty, No.111 Domneasca Str., 800201 Galati, Romania 2 Danubius University, Galati, Romania carmen.gasparotti@ugal.ro, alinaraileanu@univ-danubius.ro, erusu@ugal.ro Abstract: The paper proposed herewith presents some new strategies for the waste management in the Black Sea basin by designing an integrated system for pollution prevention. The ecosystem of the Black Sea is strongly affected by pollution discharges coming from various sources and among them the marine accidents present the highest environmental risks. From this perspective, in order to reduce the pollution and protect the environment in the Black Sea region, to implement adequate strategies that would allow the possibility of developing an integrated management plan related to the management of the waste discharges into the sea appears to be an extremely important issue. In this respect, the management plan designed in the present work is based on the principles of the waste management as adopted by the EU strategies and has as a key element the implementation of a monitoring system that would be able to identify and evaluate in real time the sources and the effects of the pollution. The practical realization of an integrated management system helps in reducing the amount of waste generated and in reducing also of the environmental pollution and waste management related costs. Key-words: marine environment, Black Sea, waste management, environmental monitoring system, pollution 1. Introduction Nowadays, the pollution in the marine environment is a reality and represents a real threat all over the world due to its destructive effect on the biological resources, of the marine flora and fauna. The environmental alerts generated by pollution have also a serious impact on the coastal activities as well as on the human health for the people living and working close to the coastal environment. The threats are multiple, they extend very often on large areas exceeding the borders of one single country and they come mainly from discharging wastes and pollutants into the sea. Most of these events are generated by the exploration and exploitation of the oil resources. Some other threats are induced by the coastal urbanization, penetration of invasive species, overfishing or destructive fishing techniques. Pollution is a complex phenomenon, physical, chemical, biological, and microbiological and is produced by the introduction from human operators either due to negligence, intentionally or accidentally of hazardous substances into the sea (Barnabé and Barnabé-Quet 2000). Annually, huge amounts of nutrients, heavy metals, pesticides, oil and artificial radionuclide are discharged in the waters of the Planetary Ocean. Marine pollution has attracted attention of international bodies and in 1972 the ONU Conference from Stockholm adopted a series of recommendations for protecting marine environment. Two decades later at the World Summit in Rio - The Rio Declaration and Agenda 21 were adopted, occasion with which the action principles for marine environmental protection and sustainable use of the biological resources have been formulated (www.blacksea- commision.org). In particular, the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships MARPOL (73/78) establishes a set of rules which provide that, during the construction and the life of the ships, these have to be equipped with everything it is needed in order to prevent and reduce the discharges of pollutants into the marine environment. Also, MARPOL (73/78) makes some recommendations about the monitoring, recording and on-board waste management, as well as the development of the port reception facilities for the waste collection and final elimination. Two examples of international conventions whose ratification have made contributions to increase the health of the marine environment are the International Convention on the Control of Harmful Anti-Fouling Systems on Ships- AFS and the International Convention for Control and Management of Ship’s Ballast Water and Sediments-BWM (www.imo.org ). To protect the marine environment, the European Commission has adopted the Thematic Strategy for the Marine Environment, which introduces the principle of spatial planning based on the ecosystem approach.