The “Green Hull” Project

“Green Hull” is a project supported by the Interreg V-A Italy-Slovenia Cooperation Programme, funded by the European Regional Development Fund, aimed at solving the problem of environmental pollution arising from biological incrusta-tions on hulls. The hulls are cleaned while they are still in the seawater, without any spillage of polluting or hazardous substances. In this way, the performance of ships is improved and the introduction of allochthonous species into the environment is reduced, without incurring the costs and time necessary for drydock. The sea knows no boundaries; cross-border cooperation in the public and private sectors is necessary to define guidelines for the control, monitoring and man - agement of water and waste from biological incrustations on hulls and to ensure more effective cross-border management. As part of the “Green Hull” project, legislation concerning environmental protection and the quality of marine waters was investigated, at international, European and national levels, both in relation to Italian and Slovenian legislation. The study of the legal aspects of the project area also aimed at preparing, within the existing regulations, guidelines for the development of green technologies in the sector of interest of the project, and a model of a system for the management of waste from cleaning hulls.