Recycled plastic kayaks

[charleston14]

Who are the people in the south west making kayaks out of beach collected plastic? (BBC news article didn’t say)

What kayaks can you get that are made of recycled plastic?

Can we encourage manufacturers of canoes and kayaks to use more recycled plastic?

[Mrstratos61]

As far as I'm aware they're making kayaks and issuing them to volunteers who then do further clean ups. http://clevedonmarinelake.co.uk/categor ... d-plastic/
Islanders Fiesta is made in factory from waste from moulding other boats

[Yellerbelly]

It would be good to see old PE kayaks recycled. We have a good few damaged, antique short kayaks in my kayak club which don't get used. There must be many more gathering mould in gardens throughout the country (I know I have one). You'd pretty quickly get enough suitable material to be recast if you fed them into a shredder. ?

Maybe an exchange/discount scheme for a SOT or SUP.

. . . . . Ben

[charleston14]

I’m no plastics expert but I think older plastic kayaks are a different type of plastic to newer kayaks, which are supposed to be more uv stable and less likely to go brittle or fade.,I’m guessing the old plastics are not so suited for grinding up and remoulding in to new kayaks,.,but if they were and manufacturers offered a trade in scheme that would be amazing. .,they need to get raw material to make boats, so if we can source it for them and they can grind it ..!?

P&h dagger etc talk about super linear plastics.,could be just marketing spin perhaps , but maybe most designs need a plastic with characteristics that can’t be achieved with recycled plastic?

Kayaks can be plastic welded using hdpe strips, far as I can tell it’s the same stuff as plastic milk bottles and chopping boards..,would be interesting to find out if milk bottles could be turned into kayaks. If you work in a big office you could acquire a great many quite quickly.

[Mac50L]

Early kayaks were cross-linked plastic (Puffin etc.) which made repair very difficult. Then they went to linear which is easier to repair. An old plastic kayak, left out in the sun - 10 year life? An old wooden kayak, same treatment - 100+ year life? There is a Rob Roy in Britain, 160 year old needing a bit of paint before using again.

[Sheepskin]

Dagger do a factory recycled boat. Beautiful thing about plastic is get the recipe right and you can make some good boats or bricks

[scottdog007]

I used to be a polymer expert. From what I remember no plastics were pure. So generally most boats were made of polyethylene, which is seen as one of the best plastics or polymers to recycle. But other ingredients are added, one specific ingredient is AV anti-ultraviolet degradation. So taking old plastics back to recycle you will not necessarily know what you are getting.

Also colours, I do not think you can separate recycled colours. Normally only a small percentage of recycled material can be used with virgin material. Or you can use full recycled material which has to be a dark colour, brown or black, but the boat can only be used for general touring capabilities as the property strength is not really known.