ELB End of Life Boats 1 philosophy The management of products at end-of-life: ELB - End-of-life Boats: a project of UCINA Confindustria Nautica (Italian Marine Industry Association) The environmental sustainability of any human activity is getting prominent and gaining a notable economic value. The industries have to withstand a cost for respecting of the arising requirements that is growing up to a significant level. Then industry is compelled to undertake activities in this direction because it is mandatory but also because it will be necessary for the survival of some fields of production. Therefore, the issue lies in identifying technologies and management systems suitable with those principles and applying them with an eye to the corporate budget also. 1 il progetto ELB End of Life Boats è stato presentato ufficialmente al SATEC 2009 di UCINA. pag.1 di 8
An overview of the legislative aspect At international level there is no specific regulation on the management of pleasure boats, and related products, at end-of-life. In line with other products of the same type, the 2000/53/CE ELV End of Life Vehicle Directive could be applied: the definition of vehicle includes, in fact, every mean that could transport people and/or things. However, it seems unnecessary to write up a specific international regulation, since even pleasure boats at end-of-life, and the related moulds, could be managed as special waste under the 98/08/EC Directive, which is very clear. The Directive states which are the focal points for the management of waste and establishes the key elements: - the definition of product at end-of-life; - the attribution of responsibility of the owner to take care of the object at end-of-life during the discarding and the following treatment. The Directive states that if the owner is not identifiable and under specific regulatory acts, the responsibility lies to the builder. pag.2 di 8
End-of-life treatment for complex products Summary: The complex product as a product made by many materials and/or components not easily separable". Separation between components is needed to make possible the treatment of the boat at end-of-life. When the parts are sorted, the specific management for each type of waste will be started. The separation of materials and components is essential for the whole treatment and the builders should address efforts to make it simpler, increasing the economical viability of the treatment. This activity is a real issue for the boats, since the structures and the furniture have to withstand the heavy loads typical of the marine environment. Regulations: some assessments, like LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) and LCC (Life Cycle Cost), consider, from the point of view of the environment, the society and the economy, the effects of the products throughout their life, but the implications that could be generated by choices made during the design phase are not considered. Disassembling is a critical phase of the whole life of the product, in particular for pleasure boats. Thus, also the assessment of these aspects regarding the assembling and disassembling would be desirable. Environment: the assessment of the environmental impact that could be generated by the lack of a proper management of the boats at end-of-life, and the related moulds, is very difficult. Even the assessment of the number of boats that reached the status of end-of-life is only approximate because not many countries have a compulsory boat registration. However, the impact of the various types of management could be well assessed for a single boat, which could be treated by one of the following processes: - disposal in landfill; - burning; - other ways of recycling; - abandonment: if no management is planned, this is the simplest, and often only, possibility. This is the more impacting solution and the abandonment in water is the worst case from an environmental point of view. All the components of the boat at end-of-life can be treated by landfill or by burning of some for cement-making or recovery of heat. pag.3 di 8
Therefore this is not the right way of treating waste according to the 98/08/EC Directive, which stresses the hierarchy of the waste treatments. Economy and Society: the lack of a correct management of the complex products at the end-of-life affects negatively on the environment, generating pollution and, in the end, economical and social damages. pag.4 di 8
ELB project End-of-Life Boats Overview: Mr. Janez Potočnik, EU Commissioner for the environment, recently stated: "We must start to treat waste as a valuable resource and the adoption of criteria stating when a waste ceases to be so defined, will result, in terms of flow of materials, in a strong motivation for industries and recycling services throughout Europe. We are talking about a new important step towards the target that EU has set itself to become a society that recycles and uses efficiently the resources." ELB project is based on the same conviction, being sure that the right management of pleasure boats at their end-of-life represents the respect for the land resources and a great opportunity both for the society and the economy. Some figures: it has been assessed that in Italy there are 620.000 2 pleasure boats, 400,000 of which are in use and about 40.000 potentially at their end-of-life. These boats at end-of-life represent a total amount of FRP (Fibre Reinforced Plastic) estimated in some 50.000 tons. About 100.000 tons resulting from the moulds already out of use have to be added to the total. Objectives of ELB: The pleasure boats are, for most, built with hull and deck in FRP. This material is hardly recyclable and represents the biggest part of any boat. One of ELB - End Life Boats project s main themes is the correct disassembling of complex products at their end-of-life and sorting components and materials to recycling. Is foreseen the realization of two different types of platforms is envisaged: one for disassembling and sorting and the other for the FRP transformation. These platforms should be distributed according to existent or potential concentrations of products and recyclable material. The platform for the disassembling should be necessarily next to the sea and near road infrastructures, to allow a simple, cheap and compatible transport of products and materials. UCINA wrote a feasibility study of the project 3 and developed some conventions and cooperation contracts with research institutes like CNR (Department of 2 Nautica In Cifre 2010 - UCINA 3 Feasibility study by Di Rienzo, Iadarola, Rallo, under the coordination of Mr. Di Martino pag.5 di 8
Molecular Design), the DSA of University of Genoa and the SDA Bocconi for the development and the evaluation of the project. Reuse and recycle: The project ELB foresees that all that disassembled materials, with adequate procedures into proper plants, are treated through reuse and recycle. In particular for FRP, technologies based on WSMC criteria (waste sheet moulding compound) will be used. pag.6 di 8
These technologies allow to obtain composite thermoplastic sheets blending different kind of polymers that could be FRP but also polystyrene (EPS), which is a great fraction of urban waste and an high percentage of those coming from packaging, with low energetic cost. The result is a technocomposite material with high mechanical performances and that could be recycled after use indefinitely. FRP + Polystyrene pag.7 di 8
Opportunities For the environment, the economy and the society: The research for common economical interests has often led to the development of new activities and opportunities. In this case, the chance is evident for the boating sector and other fields in which FRP is used in large amounts. It is also interesting for sectors using Polystyrene (EPS). The ELB project envisage a new approach towards the management of complex products end-of-life. It is based on the opportunity to obtain resources still usable from the end-of-life products and related processing waste. For the builders: every company has to deal with the costs deriving from the management of waste and the purchase of raw materials. The market of raw materials sees an increase of their value that is reflected in an increase of the price of the finished product. ELB would lead to the creation of a return cycle that allows to reduce the costs both for management of waste and for the purchase of a secondary raw material, result of a recycle process and cheaper than the new one. For the commerce: A simpler procedure for the scrapping of boats at their end-of-life could encourage the purchase of new boats. For the owners: the abandonment of end-of-life boats is often due to the considerable problems, also from an economical point of view, related to the management of the waste generated. arch. Antimo Di Martino Consigliere con delega ai temi ambientali 2012 april 14 pag.8 di 8