What can we do with old fiberglass boats?

A recent article in the Guardian discuss the environmental problems with fiberglass. Doesn't offer any solutions though.
Nautical not nice: how fibreglass boats have become a global pollution problem https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/06/nautical-not-nice-how-fibreglass-boats-have-become-a-global-pollution-problem

 

Even the industry has issues. In my single foam core build; the amount of waste is incredible.

glass scraps
Peelply
Foam offcuts
Breather media
Vac bags (get about 3 cycles when careful)..
The list goes on
Sandpaper hundreds of sheets
Paint cans and paint waste.

 

I would propose a clearinghouse or methods, but the idea is impractical

Core can be ground to small bits and made into a great thixotropic mix.

Glass could be reground.

But a small builder like me lacks resources to reduce.

And worse, I sent two junk poly boats to landfills.

 

Captain Jim’s Marine Salvage and Nautical Antiquities in Portland, Maine recycles boats. We talked to Captain Jim Hawkins as he was loading a worn out O'Day daysailer with a keel, probably a Rhodes 19 which was headed to "boat heaven". Fuel is drained and cleaned. Diesel is used to heat their building. Gasoline is used in yard equipment. The hulls are stripped and anything of value goes to the used and antique parts showroom. Other metal is sent for recycling. Hulls are cut at the waterline before being crushed. Crushed fiberglass without bottom paint goes to concrete company which uses it as a reinforcing addative in concrete. Crushed fiberglass with bottom paint goes to a company which burns it in power generating boilers. Captain Jim expects the supply of boats for recycling to continue.
https://www.marinesalvagemaine.com/marine-salvage.html
Boat Recycler https://maineboats.com/print/issue-151/boat-recycler
Boat recycling master - Ocean Navigator - September/October 2017 http://www.oceannavigator.com/September-October-2017/Boat-recycling-master/

 

I live about twenty miles from an eroding coast.From time to time a barge loaded with Norwegian granite comes over and deposits a few thousand tons of rock.It helps a bit but the erosion continues between the defences.Would it be so hard to drag a few unwanted boats into position and pump them full of concrete?There must be other places with the same problem.

 

I posted this because it was obvious to me that the author hadn't done a lot of research on fiberglass recycling.

 

Recycling is expensive. There are a variety of solutions, but oil is so cheap that only goodwill and legislation can make it work.

 

Captain Jim's in Portland, Maine, USA (see post above) gets some revenue from selling components and some metal, lead and bronze in particular, for recycling. Some boats they buy from the owners; for other boats the owner pays for the boat to be removed.

Crushed fiberglass by itself may have negative value.

 

Grinding up old fiberglass is difficult to do economically. The glass is so abrasive it wears down the equipment rapidly. Many places have tried it over the years, but few have succeeded.

The cost of transporting also becomes a big factor, the glass being recycled tends to be bulcky, but not dense, so you end up shipping a lot of air.

 

Without the lead and bronze and sh store they would not cover the man hours to cut the boats up and drive them to the guys doing the postprocessing. I even doubt they could be economically viable if that would be the sole source of their second hand stuff. There is a reason shipbreaking is primarily done in low wage areas.

Shredding to aggregate or burning fiberglass are the lowest cost "recycling" options and only work because of existing nearby infrastructure. Building that infrastructure from scratch just for fiberglass is expensive. The guys burning captain Jims boats have a high temperature oven, it was buildt for stuff deemed too toxic for landfill, not for FRP recycling.
Cement kilns can economically burn fiberglass (and tires) if there is a ready supply nearby. If it has to be trucked long distance it's not different than any other fuel source and might even be more expensive with the necessary preprocessing.
There are also more expensive options for recycling, like making synthetic fuel or other chemicals out of fiberglass, but they are only viable if oil prices are high. If it's low, there is no economic benefit to do it and legislation must compell people to it.

My favorite example are rotor blades from wind farms. Nice carbon fibre laminations that mostly go to the landfill instead of beeing redone into something usefull for boats. Our grandchildren will have a good time mining our current landfills.

 

My understanding is Captain Jim receives payment for removing and disposing of most of the boats he deals with. I don't know how much income he makes from sale of the salvaged parts. He does keep costs down by having the store open only on Saturdays for six hours, and by not advertising.

There is a cement kiln about 75 miles from Captain Jim's which burns a variety of "alternative fuels" including asphalt roof shingles, carpeting and padding, and recycled plastics.The plant has tested a variety of materials. Conveyor belt material jammed their shredder and waste from a plant which makes composites for aerospace and industrial applications was too dusty. I have not seen anything about the cement kiln burning fiberglass.

I helped salvage and dispose of a 420 sailboat hull last year which was floating near shore in a rocky area. The concern was that if the hull went onto the rocks in a storm it would break up into smaller pieces which would be difficult or impossible to remove. The hull had probably been stored near the water and floated away in a storm. It had holes in the bow and stern and had lost most but not quite all of it's floatation foam. It was cut into pieces and hauled to a land fill. Probably not the ideal way to dispose of it in a perfect world but the priority was to get it out of the water and not leave it exposed on land.

 

Yeah, that was my impression.





-Will (Dragonfly)

 

This is a nice overview of what can be done. Cement kilns burn fiberglass very well, but the fuel needs preprocessing, you can not just dump it in there. If coal or natural gas is cheaper it is not done without the legislative forcing it.
Circular economy: use of wind turbines blades as combustible and mix material for cement production http://www.windfarmbop.com/circular-economy-use-of-wind-turbines-blades-as-combustible-and-mix-material-for-cement-production/

 

Some clever ideas. I am sure a lot of old fiberglass boats have been made into planters.
In 2016 there was an article in Professional Boatbuilder about recycling fiberglass boats. Recycling Dead Boats - Professional BoatBuilder Magazine https://www.proboat.com/2016/09/recycling-dead-boats/
I recall reading somewhere that in Norway they have a program for recycling fiberglass and using the resulting ash and fibers in concrete, but I can't seem t find the article. I'll keep looking.

 

Never fails. As soon as I made the post I found the article How to Recycle Fiberglass Boats - Arwood Junk https://www.arwoodjunk.com/recycle-fiberglass-boats/
and New system created for recycling composite boats https://newatlas.com/recycling-composite-boat-parts/18877/