Azura will have an Environmental Officer on board, independent of all departments and reporting directly to the Captain.  He will have access to all areas of the ship and provide support and advice to the ship’s company on environmental matters. 

The Environmental Officer conducts inspections to ensure that company procedures and local regulations, such as the discharging of waste, are being adhered to.  There are five waste disposal operators and one waste disposal supervisor who are responsible for the day-to-day operations. 

World Wide Cruising Standards are a set of standards that are adopted throughout the Carnival UK Fleet and often go beyond regulatory requirements.  They are based upon International Conventions, Flag and Port State Legislation, Industry Standards, Memoranda of Understanding and company policy. 

Azura will be fitted with six Hamworthy Super Trident Sewage Treatment Plants and all sewage will be processed through these and discharged in accordance with the World Wide Cruising Standards that are more stringent than regulatory requirements.  Whilst there are no legal requirements governing the discharge of grey water, it will be held in tanks (approx capacity 1200 cubic metres) and discharged at a distance from shore in accordance with the World Wide Cruising Standards. Carnival UK operates a zero discharge policy for solid waste.  Hazardous wastes are segregated at source, appropriately labelled and stored for disposal ashore. 

At the Home Port of Southampton most of the hazardous waste is recycled. Plastics will be recovered for recycling where possible and there are plans for the ship to be fitted with a shredder, which will further enhance the ability to recycle plastics. Cooking oil will be collected and sent ashore for conversion to biodiesel.  The biodiesel can then be used by the waste contractor in their barge and vehicle fleet. All metal will be segregated and stored for recycling. 

Cans will be compacted in two densifiers, machines which crush the cans reducing them in size to assist with storage. The silver contained within photo processing wastes will be recovered and the contents of aerosol cans will be extracted, in line with the rest of the Carnival UK fleet.  This allows for the recycling of the can and safe storage and disposal of the contents. Food waste is pulped and discharged overboard in accordance with World Wide Cruising Standards. Azura has the ability to burn food waste if she is in an area where she is unable to discharge food waste at sea.  She also has a waste cold store of 82 cubic meters where food may be stored prior to disposal. Glass is crushed and stored for disposal or recycling (depending upon port location). 

Although it is permissible to discharge it at sea, where it is inert and causes no significant environmental harm, this is never done as small quantities of plastic (such as labels, lids and corks) are often present and would cause pollution. Azura will have two Deerberg incinerators to burn general waste, the ash from which will be stored for disposal ashore.