Too much plastic in the sea - options for change?

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PhillM

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Reviewing the recent news coverage on the amount of plastic in the sea made me think about how much we put on it. I wonder if we as a boating community needs to change? Sure lets not use disposable plastic water bottles. But what about plastic boats?

My logic.... boat designs like all fashions appear to have a limited shelf-life. It seems crazy to me that a boat with a relevantly short life expectancy is built with materials that will far outlive its usable life, yet cannot easily be recycled. Perhaps it is time to ban GRP AWB's and return to good old fashioned and bio-degradable wooden boats instead?
 
If boats could be built of Eucaliptus here in Galicia we have more than we know what todo with.They are not very good for the land as they dry it out and are very flammable.....buy why they lasted would be better to use as a building material than Oak or teak
 
Wood?

Tropical hardwoods, chemicals to fight the rot, energy required to produce more of them as they don't last so well and then the additional energy from the inefficiency in building them with limited automation.

I'm not sure they're any greener.

Steel and aluminium maybe?
 
rotrax said:
On last nights BBC News there was a feature about Portsmouth Uni developing an enzyme which broke down and digested some common plastics.

The future perhaps-one hopes so.
Click to expand...

there is a far fetched sci fi plot in there somewhere, enzyme escapes, eats all the oil, and digests our plastic world
of stuff...
Interestingly, in our old shed filled with furniture from the 1800s to the 1940s, the only nod to modern life is a Tv, and laptops. Apart from a couple of rogue coat hangers, they are the only plastic immediately obvious. Our "classic" boat at 50 years old is a plastic one, and if one ignores the hull, then there is a large amount of plastic on board, from gps and VHF casings, to fuel cans, bulkhead light lenses, pens, torch bodies, and on and on. All different plastic types. No doubt now the world has woken up to it, human ingenuity - and business acumen - will find solutions that turn potential landfill into valuable raw materials so we may continue to construct and consume to our hearts content.
 
We have a house filled with old stuff. We are comfortable with it.

One piece is a Georgian mahogany veneered five draw chest. In pretty poor cosmetic order to be truthfull.

Some years ago the draw that has the heavy stuff in started to catch at the edges where the liner had worn.

I sent it to a local guy to have hardwood strips glued in to fix this irritating problem.

A friend visited and noticed the chest was missing. " Where is your lovely old chest? " I told her where it was.

Oh-you are having it restored! How wonderful " she exclaimed.

" NO, no, no-he's mending it. " I replied.........................................
 
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