Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/776460
February 2017 | Boating Industry | 39 [ Building for Sustainability ] www.BoatingIndustry.com would be desirable to find a way to recycle boats at the end of their life. The question is, who is going to pay for it?" The question of who should pay to dispose of old boats isn't easily answered, but it's a ques- tion the U.S. industry would be wise to tackle before the EPA and other regulatory agencies elect to answer it for them. In France, a new federal Eco Tax specifically created to fund the disposal of end-of-life boats comes into effect on Jan. 1, 2018. "The tax will apply to all recreational water craft, from sailboats to powerboats to canoes – all boats up to 24 meters (78 feet) in length," said Pierre Barbleu, manager of France's APER Network. "The details are still being debated but it will most likely be applied at the point of reg- istration, since in France all boats must be regis- tered. There is a high cost to dismantling boats, and no one wants to pay. So, the government has decided who will." The problem with this approach, said Bar- bleu, is that the number of old boats in the pipe- line grossly outweighs the number of new boats being sold. "There are boats now coming to the end of their life from over the past 40 years," he said. "But today fewer people buy boats, so the cost, proportionally, is going to be higher than it should. Now the tax will make getting a boat even more expensive, and discourage new people from becoming interested in boating. It's going to hurt everyone." Here in North America, abandoned and der- elict boats are a growing problem in a number of areas – and one that can be expected to only get worse as more and more boats reach the end of their days. The sight of these rotting vessels not only casts boating in an unfavorable light – particularly to the eco-conscious Millennials that represent the incoming cohort of buyers – it also represents a significant drain of tax dollars with the cost of recovery and disposal, averaging $450 per foot. Boats as material banks For generations boats have been produced fol- lowing a linear, "cradle-to-grave" economic model of build, use and dispose. While this may have been fine in the days when wood was the primary boatbuilding material, the adoption of fiberglass changed everything. The two main issues are the environmental considerations of dumping huge quantities of fiberglass into landfill and the lost value of potentially reus- able materials. In his keynote presentation at the 2016 METS Breakfast Briefing, Steven Beckers, presi- dent of the Brussels-based Lateral Thinking Fac- tory, spoke about the benefits of designing boats with a view to being broken up and recycled at the end of their life. "Materials should be used, not consumed," said Beckers. "We need to think of products like boats as raw material banks for the future. Ma- terials appreciate in value over time. Designing boats with an eye to their eventual deconstruc- tion will allow boats to retain greater value at every stage of their life, including the end of it." Beckers advocates a circular economic model, which follows a "cradle-to-cradle" concept of build, use, then recycle into something else. He contends that the cost of recycling boats can be dramatically reduced if they were designed from the outset to be easier to deconstruct. Because recyclable materials retain some residual value through the boat's life, he says a boat's initial ac- quisition cost can be partially offset by the future value of its recyclable content. Beckers likens it to commercial ships, which retain considerable value as scrap metal even after they're no longer fit to go to sea. "Recreational boatbuilders need to adopt this way of thinking," he said. "Because with the pres- ent way of doing things there is too much waste, and it costs everybody too much money." In the auto industry, the concept of retained value at end-of-life has been embraced for years, allowing dealers to profitably accept end-of-life vehicles on trade knowing they can be subse- quently resold at wholesale for scrap. Not only do the metal components retain value as scrap material, but so do the plastic and fiberglass parts (General Motors helped develop fiberglass recy- cling technologies back in the 1970s, when the material was first introduced in the Corvette). Today, fiberglass auto parts are profitably shred- ded into fiberglass slivers with multiple uses, in- cluding serving as a non-corrosive substitute for traditional iron rebar in certain types of concrete. Fiberglass can also be recycled to make other fiberglass products – including boats. Ryds Bat- tindustri AB, Sweden's largest boatbuilder, began experimenting with fiberglass recycling about 10 years ago. While its efforts were put on hold by the 2008 economic downturn, the company has since produced prototype boats built with up to 20 percent recycled fiberglass content, and hopes to bring the technology to its production models. With millions of old boats headed for landfill over the next decade the boating industry faces what can only be described as a looming envi- ronmental problem, and one with the potential to become a public relations quagmire. Taking a leadership role now in making the industry more environmentally sustainable can only ben- efit manufacturers and dealers alike, while simul- taneously providing a long-term solution to the growing problem of end-of-life boats. PHOTO CREDIT JEFF ERDMANN There is no comprehensive solution for disposing of old boats in North America.