Kim Hollamby
Environmental stakeholders participating in last November’s Equipment Recycling Hub Round Table at METSTRADE 2023 engaged in a far-reaching discussion that outlined many industry opportunities and challenges. Their collaborative session has since been summarised by Victoria Low of World Sailing Trust. We look here at their initial recommendations.
Earlier this year we published a blog outlining results from the Equipment Recycling Hub - a joint venture between World Sailing, the World Sailing Trust, and METSTRADE. This initiative harvested a broad mix of composites, sails, rope, rigging, and clothing discarded by 2023 Allianz Sailing World Championships’ competitors.
One objective was the redistribution of the items for second use and to remind participants of the contribution they can make to more sustainable practices. Another was to display the recovered kit on an Equipment Recycling Hub feature at METSTRADE 2023 to provoke discussion and raise awareness of the need for greater sustainability across the recreational boating sector.
Victoria Low, the Head of World Sailing Trust, chaired a round table with industry leaders and sustainability experts on the last day of the show to discuss the impacts of the Hub and the wider issue of marine equipment disposal.
The session was a far reaching and informed discussion that has now been brought together in a shortly to be released World Sailing Trust report for wider exposure of the ideas that emerged. It summarises the panel’s ideas about how to drive more sustainable practices within marine equipment manufacturers and end users.
The panellists represented a wide range of relevant expertise and interests:
The panel was in common agreement about the merits of the Equipment Recycling Hub, recognising its potential for provoking awareness of sustainable practices within sailing. The Hub also demonstrates great promise as a means of creating second uses for marine equipment that often has plenty of life left in it after serving its original purpose. It does however require support in the form of means of collection and redistribution.
The discussion included options for improving the viability of marine equipment recycling and broadening its scope. Then looked beyond to the means of improving manufacturing practice. The panel identified several important requirements to accelerate marine equipment second use, recycling and circularity-focused initiatives. These included:
Distilling down the panel’s more broadly based discussions, the World Sailing Trust’s summary outlines 11 key recommendations to accelerate authentic improvements in sustainability for marine equipment. Most apply equally to the wider recreational marine industry and its customers:
In looking at the overall picture, the Equipment Recycling Hub round table also touched on important strategic changes that the industry must aspire to. It identified that collaborative partnerships with other associations and organisations outside of the sector are now vital for sharing best practice and resources.
Manufacturers need to move towards circular design principals where long service life, the ability to repair and ease of recycling are all considered. There should be a move towards the establishment and use of green certification programmes and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policies so that the sustainable credentials of equipment are validated and that manufacturers assume financial responsibility for end-of-life management of their products.
More immediately you can expect to see more activity centred around the Equipment Recycling Hub, with a series of events in planning for 2024. If you or your business would like to lend your weight to this initiative, please contact victoria.low@worldsailingtrust.org
