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Abstract

In the 1950s, glass fibre-reinforced polyester resin (GRP, also known as fibreglass or glassfibre) composites replaced wood and metal as the material for small recreational and work boats. The changes resulted from relative ease of manufacture, durability, and low maintenance. New fibres and resins then became available to create a wider range of Fibre-Reinforced Plastics (FRP). Vessels remain serviceable beyond design life: 10 years for inflatables, 20 years for motorboats and 30 years plus for sailboats. Many vessels have now reached end-of-life (EoL) and become Abandoned or Derelict Vessels (ADV). Given that thermosetting resin is not easy to recycle, these boats exist as slowly rotting hulks. There is a growing cohort of stakeholders from various backgrounds becoming concerned about this issue. This review defines sustainability as the balance of Technical, Economic, Environmental Social and Governance (TEESG) and discusses the TEESG considerations for this waste stream.

Publication Date

2025-02-03

Publication Title

Regional Studies in Marine Science

Volume

83

Acceptance Date

2025-01-24

Deposit Date

2025-02-01

Funding

In Summer 2024, the Boat Owners Association of the United States (BoatUS) Foundation ( Anon, 2024z ) sought to remove ADV from the Great Lakes and national coastal waterways, with a four-year US$10 M grant co-funded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Debris Program, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. RG was employed as InterReg SeaBioComp Researcher between October 2022 to February 2023 inclusive. The project received funding from Interreg 2 Seas Mers Zee\u00EBn program 2014\u20132020 co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund under subsidy contract No. 2S06\u2013006. The authors would like to thank Rick Ballard (The Cruising Association Regulations and Technical Services Group/RATS), Holly Phillips (RNLI Poole), and Alex Whatley, Badr Moutik and Jahir Rizvi (University of Plymouth) and the anonymous manuscript reviewers for constructive comments on the draft manuscript and graphical abstract. Further, the authors recognise they have tacit knowledge (Summerscales, 2024a) distilled from numerous forgotten conversations with individuals throughout their professional lives. A summary version of this submission was presented in conference (Summerscales, 2024b). RG was employed as InterReg SeaBioComp Researcher between October 2022 to February 2023 inclusive. The project received funding from Interreg 2 Seas Mers Zee\u00EBn program 2014-2020 co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund under subsidy contract No. 2S06-006.

Keywords

boats, disposal, end-of-life, fibre-reinforced plastic, FRP, GRP, sustainability, End-of-life, Fibre-reinforced plastic, Boats, Sustainability, Disposal

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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