initial draft guidelines developed by the Administration were 

 responsive to the advice provided by the Working Group on 

 Optional Annexes at the 24th Session of the Committee and 

 followed its recommended annotated outline. They provided 

 practical advice for ship operators, crew members, and Party 

 Governments on ways to ensure that requirements in the Annex 

 are met and they also included definitions of terms used in 

 the guidelines. 



Among other things, however, the Commission noted in its 

 comment letter that the draft guidelines could be improved by 

 reorganizing and restructuring parts of the recommended guide- 

 lines and it suggested that the chapter on handling and storage 

 procedures for ship-generated garbage be expanded and rewritten 

 to present clearer advice on the matters of collecting, pro- 

 cessing, storing, and disposing of garbage generated aboard 

 ship. In this regard, the Commission provided a suggested 

 alternative draft text for this chapter. 



The draft guidelines were subsequently revised by the 

 U.S. Coast Guard, taking into account relevant information 

 provided to the United States through the Secretariat of the 

 International Maritime Organization by other contracting 

 parties. Most of the Commission's comments, including the 

 suggested alternative text for the chapter on shipboard garbage 

 handling and storage, were accepted and included in the final 

 draft guidelines, which the Coast Guard submitted to the 

 Committee in October 1987. 



During the 25th Session of the Committee, the U.S. paper 

 containing the draft guidelines was referred to the Working 

 Group on Optional Annexes with a request that the Group finalize 

 the guidelines and pay particular attention to the definitions 

 contained therein. The Working Group reviewed the draft 

 guidelines and related papers presented by other nations. 

 The draft guidelines were very well received and, with the 

 exception of certain definitions and some further editorial 

 work, they were accepted in principle by the Working Group. 

 With respect to the definitions, the Working Group noted that 

 the inclusion of certain "oily rags" and "cargo associated 

 wastes" as garbage may create special disposal hazards which 

 port reception facilities for garbage are ill-equipped to 

 handle. Although the Working Group was unable to completely 

 resolve when such wastes would be inappropriate for disposal 

 with other garbage at port reception facilities, it revised 

 these definitions to better address the identified concerns 

 and noted that a partial solution to the problem might be 

 addressed through development of a new Annex (Annex VI) dealing 

 with the disposal of cargo residues arising from the transpor- 

 tation of bulk solid cargoes. 



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