The Elephant Revisited
New GRP wrecks are likely to be a constant in Australia’s waters. Photo: Jill Knight
This feature article originally appeared in AFLOAT Magazine and forms part of our latest edition of boating features from Sailor Woman Jill Knight exploring the growing crisis of end-of-life fibreglass boat disposal in Australia and abroad.
Two years ago, Jill Knight wrote of the elephant on deck: the crisis of disposal options for ballooning numbers of fibreglass boats at the end of their lives. This month she reviews progress since.
The need for solutions to the human and environmental health crises of plastic waste permeating land and sea is increasingly urgent. Two things suggested to me it was time for an update on progress in the recreational boating scene: first was the recent acceleration of Queensland’s War on Wrecks; second was the news in June’s Afloat that Lisa Blair is partnering with the University of New South Wales, Australian Composites Manufacturing and Steber International to build a yacht for a new record attempt. In 2027 Lisa proposes to sail a sustainably constructed vessel alone, unassisted and non-stop around the Arctic in a single season. It’s an ambitious plan and potentially game-changing for boatbuilding. As on past voyages, she will be publicising the urgency of the need for climate action as well as action to slow the increase in the plastic pollution that’s reaching even the most remote regions of our oceans. Lisa points out that around 35 million of the world’s glass reinforced plastic (GRP) boats are currently close to the end of their usable lives (ELVs). So what steps are being taken to prevent any of them going to landfill or to the bottom of the sea?
The need for solutions to the human and environmental health crises of plastic waste permeating land and sea is increasingly urgent. Two things suggested to me it was time for an update on progress in the recreational boating scene: first was the recent acceleration of Queensland’s War on Wrecks; second was the news in June’s Afloat that Lisa Blair is partnering with the University of New South Wales, Australian Composites Manufacturing and Steber International to build a yacht for a new record attempt. In 2027 Lisa proposes to sail a sustainably constructed vessel alone, unassisted and non-stop around the Arctic in a single season. It’s an ambitious plan and potentially game-changing for boatbuilding. As on past voyages, she will be publicising the urgency of the need for climate action as well as action to slow the increase in the plastic pollution that’s reaching even the most remote regions of our oceans. Lisa points out that around 35 million of the world’s glass reinforced plastic (GRP) boats are currently close to the end of their usable lives (ELVs). So what steps are being taken to prevent any of them going to landfill or to the bottom of the sea?
Beyond Australia
The destructiveness of materials used in boat manufacture seems to be getting somewhat more attention than when I looked into it two years ago. China produces more than half the fibreglass fabrics and resins used globally and is making moves towards sustainability domestically. Regulations are in place for the recycling of wind turbine blades, but sustainability action is voluntary as yet in boatbuilding. However, current development of fully recyclable resins that will allow recovery and reuse of glass and carbon composites with no loss of performance will flow to boat construction.
In Europe the European Boating Association, whose powerful roadmap for legislation I mentioned previously, remains just that: a roadmap. The vision for legislation that “must ensure that boats are designed and manufactured in such a way as to allow their reuse, recycling and recovery to be achieved and must also address the legacy of 50 years of FRP (GRP) boat construction” has yet to be realised.
France is still out in front. In 2019 the French waste-management laws of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) were broadened to cover leisure boats. Builders and importers must set up approved disposal systems or contribute, on each new boat purchase, to an industry-wide non-profit fund to cover disposal; the fund is bolstered by an annual levy on French-flagged vessels. An owner applies for disposal and pays only for transportation of the ELV to the site. Many of these, if not most, will be GRP, a material that it is hugely expensive and often impractical to recycle, and which remains in the environment forever. Some GRP may be shredded and down-cycled for industrial uses but will finally end up polluting the earth for eternity.
As with developments in China, Beneteau’s trialling of Elium resin in some of its models is a positive: this is a material that can be more easily treated at the end of a boat’s life to separate it from the glass fibres, leaving both components in their original state. The resin remains a product of fossil fuel but can, at least, be recycled.
Germany
In Germany, GRP is banned by law from landfill. While ELVs are stripped of reusable metals and wood, and toxic wastes are drained, remaining fibreglass hulls are incinerated and the resins harnessed for energy production. The glass itself does not burn and is used as a road base component or sent to landfill. Alternatively, the GRP may be shredded and used to fuel cement kilns, with the remaining glass used in the cement product itself. Not surprisingly, the fees for this disposal process are beyond the means of many ELV owners, so boats are commonly stripped of identification and abandoned in remote locations. On a positive note from Germany, the company Greenboats is still building sailing boats and dinghies using flax fibres and bio-resins, setting up genuinely circular models for component reuse, repair and recycling. Their work has received awards for contributions to sustainability. Wood in boatbuilding in Europe and elsewhere in the world has become mostly a core for synthetic resins and cloth, with more emphasis on sourcing sustainable plantation timber than on quality. However, in most yards there is more attention being paid to cutting down on single-use plastics and replacing things like pots and paint trays with biodegradable materials where possible.
Australia
Thousands of new GRP vessels are built or imported and launched into Australia’s waters annually with no sound plan – no plan at all, in fact – for their non-polluting disposal. While larger manufacturers like Riviera are undoubtedly working to minimise plastic waste during building, I can find no reports of action towards sustainable materials in the construction of hulls and decks. Yet, as elsewhere in the world, we have huge numbers of GRP boats reaching, or at, end-of-life. Australia’s position on their disposal is dire. Administrative wheels grind painfully slowly in NSW. After government consultation with key stakeholders, an ELV Policy Options paper was put out for public discussion in January 2022. Consultation closed in January 2023 and a Moorings Reform Program was reshaped into a Moorings Action Plan. To ease the path to disposal, in February 2025 the Maritime Safety Act was amended to expand the definition of unsafe vessels to include ELVs. In November 2025 the Community Consultation Report was published. Included in options supported by respondents were ideas for expanding recycling possibilities for GRP and suggestions on how to distribute responsibility for this between manufacturers and owners. There was also support for EPR, as in the French model. As far as I can discern this is where we stand, with the really difficult steps of negotiating distribution of responsibility and cost still ahead.
Meanwhile, the Queensland War on Wrecks program has also been reshaped – into the Keeping Our Waterways Safe program – and given a $15million injection by government. Maritime Safety Queensland (MSQ) seems to have faced no obstacles involving definition of terms.
Recent crackdowns by authorities on derelict boats and liveaboard owners from the Whitsundays to the New South Wales border have been in the news lately. MSQ has removed more than 2,000 derelict and abandoned vessels – more than 10,000 tonnes of waste – since 2018. While this is a welcome result when it comes to keeping our waterways safe and more pleasing to the eye, the amount of GRP waste, largely going to landfill, is horrifying. Contractors hired by the government have strict guidelines to observe regarding toxic wastes and protection of the environment during the disposal process, but the fact remains that the GRP will end up in the earth.
Attempts are made to have any owner who can be located pay the large costs involved, but I doubt there would be many who would have the means: if a vessel has achieved ELV status her owner is likely uninsured, extremely poor, sick, or disappeared.
The original 2018 vision of the Queensland taskforce – to identify best practice in ensuring that all parties involved in a vessel’s lifecycle meet their obligations from the time a vessel is launched until its ultimate disposal awaits definition and action.
In one excellent development since I last wrote, Pantaenius now offers Lift Cover at a relatively small cost – 90 days insurance in participating marinas and boatyards for vessels with no acceptable insurance in place. The policy covers wreck removal and third-party liability and means that owners can carry out necessary maintenance to keep vessels seaworthy.
Lisa Blair’s project
All this forms the context for Lisa Blair’s new project, a brilliant ray of hope through the gloom. Lisa has teamed up with people who just might have the technology to get the whole industry beyond the depressing point we’re at. The boat she is building will be constructed using a 100% recyclable composite up to ten times stronger than traditional GRP. The fibre is volcanic, derived directly from basalt, and the resins are plant-based alternatives to crude oil derivatives. The material is naturally fire-resistant. If this 35-footer has the potential for longevity and manageable cost and withstands the extreme punishment of an Arctic circumnavigation, it could mark a turning point for the boatbuilding industry and the planet. During the voyage, Lisa’s aims to complete a number of citizen science projects and promote climate action in schools and in the community generally are to be applauded. However, from the point of view of ocean lovers and maritime industry participants generally, this project could give Australia a real chance of concrete action in curbing the destructive elephant in our particular room: end-of-life GRP. Go Team Lisa!
This feature article originally appeared in AFLOAT Magazine. To explore more stories like this, browse the AFLOAT Magazine archive or view the latest edition of AFLOAT Magazine.
