“We are cleaning up the bay, improving water and air quality, reducing pollution, and creating renewable energy using innovative green technologies for the port all at once,” said Stephanie Lansing, an associate professor at the University of Maryland in a press release.

In September 2016, the Dutch technology company RanMarine began using aquatic drones to help clean up Rotterdam Port, the largest in Europe. One of its drones - known as the “WasteShark” - is as a big as a passenger car and has an ‘open mouth’ that can gobble up as much as 500kg of waste from the water. 

The device is similar in some respect to the SeaBin, a popular floating rubbish bin used in marinas, docks, yacht clubs and commercial ports to suck up floating trash into a catch bag. Designed by a pair of Australian surfing enthusiasts, SeaBins are now in use at marinas around the world and have been described by The Guardian as a “debris-sucking saviour of the oceans”.

Of course cleaning up a port involves a lot more than removing the debris that lies underneath the water’s surface. Greenhouse gas emissions from shipping currently represent around 2.6% of total global emissions - a number that could triple by 2050 according to the International Transport Forum. 

For the billions of people that live in coastal areas and close to ports, these emissions present a major daily health hazard.

“Ports are a hotspot of pollution,” says Craft. “They are hubs for all kinds of different sectors: the shipping sector, the trucking sector and the rail sector. You have lots and lots of different sources of air pollution coming together in this one place.”

Here again, technology is playing a leading role in tackling emissions at ports and beyond. Hydrogen fuel cells - an eco-friendly technology which combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity - are being considered by a growing number of shipping owners and tech leaders.

Ports are also showing increased interest in the electrification of their yard equipment. Marine analysts say running ships on electric shore power, for example, has the potential to massively decrease emissions and improve local air quality.

As well as reducing pollution from ships, Craft says ports must also look at addressing trucking emissions. 

“In the US around one third of all truck trips are empty,” she says. “This means you have trucks driving around with nothing in them. Now we are seeing software programmes and technologies that enable trucks to pick up exports, drive to the port and then pick up imports to avoid wasted trips.”

But while the technology is improving, getting ports to address environmental issues remains a challenge. None of the sectors that use port facilities such as trucking, shipping and rail are managed or operated collectively, meaning “you have lots of different players involved, some of whom are talking to the others and some of them aren't,” Craft says. 

“In terms of coordinating a universal effort to address emissions holistically, you end up with a lot of piecemeal efforts,” she adds.

Many ports are unwilling to even accept the premise that they are responsible for emissions caused by other sectors: “Talk to some ports and they will say we don't own these trucks,” says Craft. “Part of it is a mindset on the part of the ports in terms of how they see themselves.”

With many ports unwilling to act on their own to address pollution, the involvement of local communities is key.

“That is what drove ports in California to address pollution there. The fact that they were actually sued by a community. I would say they have probably been the best-organised in terms of communities that have engaged with ports, but there have been other smaller-scale examples.”

Whether local communities are trying to reduce pollution in the water around a port or improve air quality, the struggle is likely to continue as the global shipping industry grows. 

“Even as emissions across other sectors go down, in the shipping sector emissions are projected to go up,” says Craft.