The main port agent in Ushuaia, Sealand Ship Agents & Suppliers, is putting together a comprehensive recycling program to help expedition operators go green this coming season. Ushuaia is the main homeport for expedition sailings heading to Antarctica. 

Sealand Ship Agents, working with Delver Agents, will place material containers pier-side in Ushuaia for participating cruise lines to dispose their recyclables in, according to Veronica Palacios, managing partner and co-owner. Delver works alongside Sealand Ship Agents & Suppliers, a local outfit on the ground in Ushuaia. Both companies share the same ownership. 

The company will handle around 170 port calls in Ushuaia this coming season, said Adrian Fussell, operations. Fussell said the company was aiming to have around 50 calls use the recycling option.

Once the containers are full, they will be moved offsite, where recyclable items will be sorted into various categories, including plastics, bottles, glass, paper and cardboard.

“We’ll move them to a yard provided by the city, it’s really a multi-agency partnership,” said Palacios. “This idea was based on brain storming; there really has been no structure to do this in Ushuaia. We are setting this up as an example to show it can be done.”

At the end of the season, participating cruise lines will share the cost to truck the materials to Buenos Aires, where the items will be properly recycled.

Sealand will then donate the financial credit on the recycling to a local NGO or charity in Ushuaia.