The decision to ban scrubber discharge by July 2027 was made at a ministerial meeting of the OSPAR commission in Vigo this week. File Image / Pixabay

The discharge of washwater from open-loop and hybrid scrubbers is set to be banned at ports and inland waters in the North-East Atlantic region from the middle of 2027.

The decision to ban scrubber discharge by July 2027 was made at a ministerial meeting of the OSPAR commission in Vigo this week, NGO Seas at Risk said in an emailed statement. Closed-loop scrubber discharge will be banned by January 2029.

OSPAR is an organisation set up for 15 governments and the European Union to cooperate on protecting the marine environment in the region.

The move is a significant expansion of the areas in which closed-loop scrubbers will no longer be usable, forcing shipowners with these systems either to convert their systems into hybrid models where feasible or to switch from using HSFO to more expensive VLSFO.

Seas at Risk has argued for a tougher measure, banning open-loop scrubber discharge in all territorial waters in the region, but this measure has not achieved consensus.