Turning sailing rubbish to gold

It has long been said that one person’s rubbish is another person’s gold. That truism was certainly brought up to date when the first Equipment Recycling Hub was piloted at the 2023 Allianz Sailing World Championships in Scheveningen, Netherlands.

This collaboration between World Sailing, World Sailing Trust, and METSTRADE collected a fascinating haul of composites, sails, rope, rigging such as blocks and clothing. The highest number of donations were sailing gloves, often treated by competitors as a very disposable commodity and quite challenging to recycle due to the variety of materials and construction materials involved.

The material collected was then featured on an Equipment Recycling Hub display in Hall 12 at METSTRADE last year. It was poignant to view it there – many of the items will have commenced their product journeys as launches at the show. Representative samples were now back on display after their initial owners had declared them surplus to requirements. It served to remind the global marine trade of the importance of developing second uses and repurposing paths for the products it manufactures. – Full report