Turkey has banned the use of open-loop scrubbers in its waters, joining a growing list of countries to reject the system.
The move was announced by the Turkish ministry of environment and urbanisation on 6 April.
According to a circular from the Turkish Chamber of Shipping, discharge of wash water has now been prohibited.
Vessels operating the exhaust cleaners will have to switch to compliant fuels to meet sulphur emission requirements.
Closed-loop scrubbers remain acceptable.
Standard Club warning
The move comes a year after UK insurer Standard Club warned that ships fitted with open-loop kits faced fines in Turkey if samples from overboard discharges breached pollution limits.
However, there was no formal limitation on their use at that time.
In August 2020, Saudi Arabia also banned the use of open-loop scrubbers in its waters.
That November, Malaysia also banned the system.
And in January, Pakistan barred the discharge of wash water from the exhaust-cleaning systems in the port of Karachi.
Singapore and Fujairah had already banned the kits, while China was set to extend a ban on discharges to more coastal regions.
But in November last year, a European Parliament environment committee voted to drop a proposal to ban open-loop scrubbers and instead backed a gradual phase-out.
A sitting of the ENVI committee had discussed banning open-loop scrubbers, which discharge directly into sea water, within the European Union.
The proposal argued that open-loop scrubbers damaged the marine environment and only “sustainable solutions” should be used to reduce sulphur emissions from ships.
