Carnival to Pay $20M for Dumping Trash Into Ocean
Miami-based Carnival Corp. was charged with six probation violations for a 2016 conviction for environmental crimes. Then last week they reached a deal with federal prosecutors. Now we know the details of that deal.
Carnival will pay a settlement amount of $20 million after Princess Cruises admitted to violating the terms of a 2017 settlement for improper waste disposal.
According to a court filing submitted on Monday, Carnival released food waste and plastic into the ocean, failed to accurately record waste disposals, created false training records, and secretly examined ships to fix environmental-compliance issues before third-party inspections without reporting its findings to the inspectors.
Besides the payments that should be done within seven days, they have agreed to receive additional ship inspections, devote more resources to ensure compliance with the 2017 settlement, reduce the number of single-use plastic items on its ships, and establish teams to improve waste management. If Carnival does not meet deadlines to revamp its compliance process for the 2017 settlement, it will have to pay additional penalties of $1 million-$10 million per day.
The $20 million settlement seems like a small price to pay for the environmental crimes they have been accused of, again. And then for not complying with previous settlements. Hopefully they clean up their act this time around.
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While I am happy to see that the judge did follow through with a penalty, $20 million is a drop in the bucket for this company. A quick google search says that they have over 11 million passengers a year. So, an additional $2 per passenger for one year more than covers the penalty. I hope that next time the penalty is much more appropriate to the irreversible environmental damage this company has caused. These insignificant penalties do not encourage companies to improve their environmental stewardship.