Photo: Wikipedia. Source: Costa Departments: Fleet Operations and Environmental Management.
A cruise ship with 3,000 passengers is considered of average size, with the largest ships exceeding 6,000 passengers. A typical cruise is seven days, and the ship stores are usually replenished at the turn port, so the cruise carries all the provisions for the full journey. For instance, about 24,000 water bottles are loaded on board at each cruise turn. The provisions on the above chart are all containers (plastic, aluminum, cardboard, or glass) that need to be disposed of and compacted on the ship as international laws forbid their disposal at sea. This requires a recycling facility on board as well as a point of collection at the turn port. Further, it offers a large amount of materials to be used within the port community for circular economy processes.