Sustainable Sailing recognised (again) for sail-recycling solution

There’s no denying that sustainability in the marine industry is a hot topic. Each development which leads manufacturers closer to a carbon neutral future is being welcomed with open arms. And now, Sustainable Sailing is celebrating as it has been shortlisted as one of the UK’s leading maritime start-ups, as part of the Maritime UK awards. Its been shortlisted for its development of the world’s first closed loop recycling solution for 99 per cent of all sails on the market. (It also won the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) Startup of the Year Award 2023, last November).

The recycling solution is already being applied to the 2000 tonne per year sail waste stream, which is mostly from the boating and leisure marine industry. The company believe that this solution has been needed since the invention of Dacron sail cloth in the 1960s. It has taken until recently to develop, due to the need for cutting edge green chemistry and biotechnology, which can be applied to the maritime industry.

Sails are designed to be hard wearing and resistant to all the abuse of high-performance racing. Bu the cost of that? Being very difficult to manage at end-of-life.

While about 1 per cent of sails are recut or repurposed into bags and jackets (like Rooster’s range), the majority are stored or landfilled, says Sustainable Sailing. Sails in landfill leach microplastics and heavy metals, with even the smallest sail taking hundreds of years to degrade. However, by combining recent advances in chemical and biological engineering, Sustainable Sailing says it can recover high quality components of these sails, with potential to return the components into sails or high value compounds for other materials.

“It is great to be recognised for all of the team’s hard work and we’re really looking forwards to the awards evening in Belfast, one of the UK’s great maritime cities,” says founding director and head of R&D, Dr Joe Penhaul Smith. “We wish the rest of the shortlisted companies the best of luck and will continue to push the envelope of our technologies, to help build a more sustainable future.”

The Maritime UK awards celebrate the very best that the UK maritime sector has to offer. The start-up award was sponsored by SafetyTech Accelerator. This program helps investors navigate the complex demands of safety-critical industries.

Main image via Sustainable Sailing website, courtesy of Peter Hickson.