Lightbrite
“The issue is that when this ship is at sea, it discharges all their waste into the ocean without restrictions. It’s far enough away from land to disregard any legislative concern for the environment, and so it does.”
When it returns to port and has no waste to be offloaded for legal disposal the captain may find himself under arrest, the shipowner fined and the ship possibly seized.
There are international treaties, laws and agreements for dealing with waste disposal at sea. When a ship docks, the sewage holding tanks are emptied via sewer connections or into tanker trucks. Solid waste is carted away by commercial haulers and disposed of in a legally permitted manner.