Re-cycling rope

[Neeves]

Its a recurring topic.

Partially because I keep mentioning re-use of retired gym climbing ropes as snubbers, to the annoyance of some.

I may be a bit slow but I understand Jimmy Green might take old rope for recycling and Liros have a formal scheme to use old rope as a raw material.

LIROS Green Wave® | www.liros.com

Of course if this takes off the stocks of retired climbing rope will deminish and snubbers will no longer be free (and I'll no longer upset,.... anyone). So....stock up on your free snubbers now. The big problem is that it will cost more to deliver your old rope - but maybe chandlers will come to the party and offer 'bins' for old rope as there are bins for bottles and plastic bags at supermarkets.

Jonathan

 

[Mister E]

It is next to impossible for members of the public to get old climbing ropes from climbing walls in this country. The business are very wary of people still using them for climbing.
My son works in the industry and had trouble getting them for me to use for the boat.

 

[rogerthebodger]

On a similar note the chain used on chain hoists and chain sings must be replaced after so many years of use.

I was thinking of seeing if I could collect chain from the hoist service providers and join them together and blast and galvanize too use as anchor chain (now I said it must go to the naughty corner)

 

[thinwater]

I doubt this will expand far. The problem is that old plastic that has been in the sun is damaged by UV at the molecular level and is not recyclable into good quality anything. I know of several beach and ocean clean up projects where all of the recovered plastic, destined for recycling, was landfilled because the quality was too low.

The recycled fleece and ropes you see in the market are nearly always made from drinking water bottles, which are high quality polyester and have not been in the sun. Also pre-consumer waste from factories (trimmings).

The other problem is separating the polymers. Ropes are often blends. You can't remelt a rope that is a nylon/polyester blend. Unlike plastics that can be chipped, separating mixed fibers is not practical.

There is a certain size market for low quality recycled polymer, for things where only bulk matters. Mostly, IMO, it leads to junk products that don't last. Unlike even wood chips, that have good bonding properties, you get chips that don't melt properly and don't bond well. Junk. This is why so much of the mixed plastics for recycling that went to China were landfilled or burned. Yes, people are working on it, but at this time, it's not economically practical.

But the main problem is that sunburned ropes are junk polymer.

 

[thinwater]

Climbing ropes are sometimes recycled. it is nearly always re-use into something else rather than polymer recovery. And climbing ropes are far less subject to UV damamge, since they are not left in the sun and are retired very early.

Rope Recycling Program - SterlingRope.com
PROCESS
Recycled Ropes :: How to Recycle Rope

Sails are another case. You can sell them used. There are folks that make bags. But I doubt anyone would recover the polymer (sun burn). They aren't even good for rags, like an old tee shirt.

 

[Neeves]

This seems to apply to production scraps from new rope - I don't know if it applies to used, retired rope.

Repurposed Rope Insulators

Otherwise its a depressing thread - its all going to go to land fill.

Jonathan

 

[thinwater]

^^ The video says "industrial rope off-cuts," which mean pre-consumer factory trimmings. Virgin material.

In fact, virgin trimmings and thread waste have been used to make cheap insulation and cheap rope filler since I was a small boy. if you look at the core on some cheap pound store and hardware store rope you will find it is thread trimmings of many colors from the garment industry. Very weak.

The answer is to repurpose rope around the boat, house, and yard until it is truly junk. Tie fenders. One of my retired climbing ropes is tying a nar-do-well neighbor's boat so it won't hit mine. Train up limbs on trees. Let the daughters dog play with them--she's a German shepherd and loves tug-of-war. Bundle up rubbish. Down cycle until they are done.

I suppose old sails could end up covering fire wood. And old sailmaker's joke.

 

[William_H]

Old rope can make a useful fender. Macrame on a large scale. Take a length of rope like 4 metres. fold in half and tie a reef knot down from the centre loop then another reef knot then another until you have a bulk of knots that make a fender. You can make 2 loops of rope and tie the adjacent loops together alternatively making a mat type fender. Worth trying . ol'will

 

[Neeves]

I suppose old sails could end up covering fire wood. And old sailmaker's joke.

Fire wood is also environmentally unfriendly, its very difficult to gain permission for a new fire in a house - no matter how efficient.

Jonathan

 

[PetiteFleur]

I've bought ex climbing rope from a local auction house years ago - at least I think it was, apparently from the Broads area. Inspected, it a couple of chafed ares which I cut out and made mooring ropes. Very stretchy rope. One was 55m long, which came in very useful when mooring in Holland, on the outside of about 8 boats when the Harbour master insisted everyone must have a shore line from bow & stern. Other boats had to tie together genoa, main sheets etc. Now resides in my shed...

 

[AntarcticPilot]

One of the tasks of a ship's crew in the days of sailing ships was recycling rope! Worn-out ropes would be unpicked, and the yarns made into small cordage that was then used for tasks like serving, whipping and fancy work. But of course, the rope was made of organic materials (hemp, mainly) and would eventually rot. It was even recycled for use as caulking - that's what "picking oakum" was.

It would be perfectly feasible to recycle conventional laid ropes for use as cordage, but a) it's time-consuming and b) we no longer have standing rigging that needs to be protected by worming and serving, as hemp rigging did.

Braided ropes would be a nightmare to recycle in that way.

 

[thinwater]

One of the tasks of a ship's crew in the days of sailing ships was recycling rope! Worn-out ropes would be unpicked, and the yarns made into small cordage that was then used for tasks like serving, whipping and fancy work. But of course, the rope was made of organic materials (hemp, mainly) and would eventually rot. It was even recycled for use as caulking - that's what "picking oakum" was.

It would be perfectly feasible to recycle conventional laid ropes for use as cordage, but a) it's time-consuming and b) we no longer have standing rigging that needs to be protected by worming and serving, as hemp rigging did.

Braided ropes would be a nightmare to recycle in that way.

And yet there are opportunities. For example ...

The portion of a rope that spends most of its life in the mast is not UV damaged. That section can make a jib sheet for a smaller boat. Or some tweaker.

The cover of the good portion can be used to cover Dyneema where it goes through a clutch or cam cleat. It can be spliced into low-strength soft shackles for securing deck hardware etc. It makes nice sail ties.

Old core is just rubish.

I made a door mat from the Genoa sheet we had on the boat when cruising with my daughter when she was school-age. She's now 30 and teaching, and appreciates the memories. It was a very familiar, distinctive rope.