End-of-life of boats: a problem to be solved quickly. The US solution

Fiberglass (or fiberglass-reinforced plastic, GRP) has been a revolution for the marine industry, offering hulls that are lightweight, strong and easy to maintain. However, its popularity now hides a growing environmental and logistical challenge: the disposal of boats at the end of their lives. The strength of fiberglass lies in its composite nature: a polymer matrix (such as polyester or epoxy resins) reinforced with glass fibers. This combination makes it extremely durable and resistant to natural decomposition. And it is precisely this quality that turns it into a problem when a boat reaches its end of the line.

Unlike metals or wood, the composite nature of fiberglass makes it difficult and expensive to recycle. The process requires separating the resin from the glass fibers, an operation that is not cost-effective for most companies. Let’s look at the numbers: it has been estimated that about 80,000 boats reach the end of their life in Europe each year, producing more than 50,000 tons of fiberglass. For these hulls, the problem of disposal arises, and since we understand that fiberglass is an inert material (it does not undergo chemical or biological transformations), the cost is really high: we are talking about a thousand euros per linear meter, which makes the disposal far exceed the value of most wrecks.

What happens to end-of-life boats today?

Having reached the end of its life, the boat is either abandoned by the owner in most cases (54 percent according to studies conducted by Northern Light Composites), or given away in the hope that it will be refurbished by an enthusiast or, at worst, sunk. There are very few cases, alas, in which a boat is routinely given to companies that specialize in fiberglass recycling. In theory, there are concrete methods for the disposal of fiberglass, although, in practice, the associated costs are often too high to make them a universally adopted solution. This is why, in most cases, only a small part of the boat (between 10 and 20 percent) is actually recycled. The remainder, consisting mainly of the fiberglass hull, ends up simply being sent to landfill or turned over to the incinerator, and neither route is particularly eco-friendly.

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How do you dispose of fiberglass?

There are basically three viable options for treating fiberglass in an environmentally sustainable manner. A first option isthermal oxidation of fiberglass, which involves burning Of the hulls. This process can generate two beneficial results, viz. power turbines or industrial furnaces with heat produced and the use of unburned fibers in the construction, for example in cement production. However, there are drawbacks: the process still generates ash to be disposed of in landfills and most importantly, the process is expensive and not zero-impact. Alternatively, one can resort to shredding of fiberglass.

In the latter case, combustion is avoided, opting instead for grinding of the hulls in order to obtain very small pieces or even powders, allowing reuse of the entirety of the material. Even this route is not without its problems, since with milling, most of the original properties of fiberglass are lost: the resulting material cannot be used to build other hulls and is mainly used inconstruction. Finally, there is the pyrolysis of fiberglass, a somewhat more complex process than the others that leads to the chemical decomposition Of the material. This makes it possible to recover different types of useful substances: the pyro oil (which can be used to be mixed with other fuels or asphalt), the pyro gas (a clean fuel) and a solid-type by-product. However, this processing is also expensive, having to bring the waste to decidedly high temperatures.

We need to move quickly

The problem of “ghost ships” and marine pollution from GRP requires urgent legislative action at the global and national levels. There is a push for the adoption of a circular economy model that includes the extension of producer responsibility (EPR), i.e., obliging manufacturers to contribute to or manage product disposal at end-of-life, as happens in the tire industry for example. Dedicated infrastructure should then be established, creating a network of specialized recycling facilities, supported by public incentives. Last point under discussion is the provision of a digital material passport, to track the exact composition of the hull and facilitate future recycling processes.

Good examples

Some countries have moved to try to solve this long-standing problem of hull disposal. France was the first to adopt an official national network for boat recycling and dismantling, founded by the Fédération des Industries Nautique, and to date there are 52 dismantling sites that manage to dispose of 25,000 boats a year. Another noteworthy example is offered in Sweden, where one yard manages to produce boats with 10 percent closed-loop recycled scrap, and has a 15.5-foot (4.70-meter) prototype made with 20 percent reused fiberglass. A hull recycling program is up and running in Japan that is already 20 years old and has about 40 dismantlers and 9 fiberglass processors.

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In the U.S., the BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water launched the first national database to identify and monitor abandoned boats, conferring reports of abandoned boats into a public-access database. In Italy, on the other hand, only Law No. 68 of 2015 has been introduced, citing criminal liability for “Delitti contro l’ambiente” (Crimes against the environment) and a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

Federico Lanfranchi