Sweden pushes for more boat scrapping

Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management wants to boost the speed in which old boats are scrapped.

The Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM) is contributing around SEK 2m (€200,000) towards a boat dismantling scheme in an effort to boost the speed in which old boats are scrapped.

All boat owners in Sweden can dismantle their boats for free until 31 December 2018. However, they are required to cover the costs of cleaning and transportation themselves.

The dismantling scheme has been on the market since 2015, when Swedish marine industry association SweBoat launched a system to bring older or unused boats from the market.

At most, some 300 boats are dismantled each year, but SwAM is hoping to see many more boats taken out of use.

The reason is mainly environmental. Sweden has around 64,000 abandoned or unseaworthy boats, of which just some are dismantled and reused.

Sweden has a total fleet of around 900,000 pleasure boats, of which at least 100,000 are 40 years or older. Several thousand need to be scrapped.

The SEK 2m will cover the dismantling of up to 360 boats. All boats at least 3m long and from 200kg to three tonnes can make use of the government money.

Story by Lars-Åke Redéen in IBI