Steber looks at end-of-life boat disposal scheme

Under the framework of the plan, Steber will establish a program to dispose of boats deemed no longer fit for service “safely and in an environmentally responsible way”.

The move will go some way to addressing the number of abandoned boats littering Australian waterways, with owners allowing their boats to fall into neglect and sink rather than removing them from the water.

The Queensland Government’s war on wrecks campaign has removed more than 720 derelict vessels from the state’s waterways – 430 of them using Maritime Safety Queensland resources – as part of a four-year, $20 million effort to clean up unsightly boats cluttering coastal and inland shorelines.

Fibreglass boats are highly durable, meaning they can have a long lifespan compared with steel, aluminium or wooden boats.

Many fibreglass boats can be decades old, with landfill the only viable option to dispose of them once they reach the end of their usable life.

However, some European countries have banned fibreglass boats from going to the tip, instead introducing recycling programs that can break them down into small fragments that can be used as a base for a number of construction materials.

In a response to a NSW Government issue paper looking at mooring reform in the state – including the problem of unseaworthy and end-of-life boats – the BIA said many of the problems of getting rid of a boat stemmed from a lack of options.

“Disposal should not only be safe and managed, but sustainable and economically viable,” it said.

“Composites are currently not as easy or as profitable to recycle as steel, aluminium and wooden boats.

“In the developing world there is a viable market for recycled steel and aluminium, but as no profitable waste-stream for composites exist, market pressures do not encourage current ship breakers to take on the recycling of recreational crafts.”

Australia currently has around 910,000 recreational boats, with around one in every three being made from fibreglass. Around 10,000 new boats are added to Australia’s waterways each year.

Up to 15 per cent of moored vessels on Australian waterways are estimated to be at the end of their usable life, the BIA said.

One of the options being considered in NSW to reduce the number of unseaworthy boats is compulsory insurance for moored vessels, however, this would have the knock-on effect of making life more difficult for responsible boat owners.