How To Get Rid Of A Fiberglass Boat
Fiberglass lasts a long, long time. With a lifespan averaging 50 years, boats made from fiberglass will give you the highest return on investment versus any other vessel on the market. But hey, nothing lasts forever, and thats probably why youre here.
A fiberglass boat thats reached the end of its lifespan wont just dissolve into the ground. On the contrary, these boats can stick around for centuries when improperly disposed of. So to help you do the right thing, here are some tips on how to get rid of a fiberglass boat the responsible way.
What Happens To Old Fiberglass Boats
As you can see from my guide, theres no one correct answer, with multiple options. Its certainly a big problem though, as it has been estimated that around 40 million boats are coming towards the end of their lives.
The issue is that there is no one correct procedure for disposing of them, and no one organisation has taken responsibility to come up a standard disposal or recycling program in the United States.
Most old fiberglass boats are cut up into pieces and then placed into landfill, but this is not a sustainable strategy as you can imagine.
There needs to be an industry-wide initiative developed for the proper disposal and recycling of old fiberglass boats, but as yet, there is nothing planned.
Take It To A Landfill Site
One option is to simply take it down to your local landfill site, but make sure you first phone ahead before taking the boat. There are usually a lot of rules for dumping and disposing of fiberglass boats, and you may be required to first remove all toxic fluids from the boat before taking it to the landfill.
Taking to a landfill site can be expensive, but might be your only viable disposal option,
They will then proceed to deconstruct the boat with whatever heavy equipment they have on hand if you have fond memories of your boat you may not want to witness this part!
There will also be a charge for taking the boat and if this is too much you can then move onto the final option below.
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All Good Things Must Come To An End
Countless boats have been abandoned across the province of Ontario in backyards, storage yards, and farm fields. If left untouched, these abandoned vessels contaminate terrestrial & marine environments , impact the aesthetics of facilities & areas where they have been abandoned, and pose a safety risk to individuals that approach the vessel.
As a boat owner, you are responsible for the proper disposal of your vessel. Boating Ontario has compiled a list of businesses in the province that offer boat disposal services.
Some businesses offer full-service disposal including pick up, transport, salvage & disposal, others offer partial service including one or more of the above services.
Please contact and work directly with these organizations to make arrangements to meet your needs.
Landfills Boat Recycling & Disposal Solutions
If you have questions that are not addressed below, please send us an e-mail at and we’ll find the answer for you!
Advantage Buying Spare Boat Parts
The best reason to buy used parts is because you can save a lot of money if you have to make repairs. Many used parts are still in great condition since scrap yards need to operate under state government regulations. This gives you some assurance that the used parts you are purchasing are over decent quality.
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Disadvantages Of Buying Spare Boat Parts From The Junkyard
Sometimes its not all glory purchasing used parts. You may find some part you purchased doesnt last or is not durable. There is a popular saying cheap is expensive. You may find that the part you purchased has 1000s of hours on it and is nearing its end of life. Unfortunately spare boat parts dont come with a warranty.
Lastly if you are scavenging through a junk yard for boats you may spend the whole day looking and never find what you are looking for.
The Easiest Old Boat Removal Option
If you have tried these 3 options or decided they are not worth the time or risk, A+ Enterprises is here for you. We are Eastern Pennsylvanias largest and most reputable boat removal service.
Our company takes care of your boat from start to finish. Regardless of the condition of your boat or trailer, we have a solution to remove it and properly dispose of it for you.
If your boat is untowable, we have rollback rucks to haul the boat and trailer on to safely get it back to our processing facility. From there, we will remove any recyclable materials from the boat. Finally, your boat hull will be demolished and properly disposed of in a landfill.
This is much better for the environment than letting your old boat sit around leaking oil and collecting water.
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How We Dispose Of Boats
Properly disposing of a boat is important. Some people will do terrible things just to get rid of a boat such as sinking it in a lake or river, throwing it in the woods, or trying to burn it! The only proper way to dispose of a fiberglass boat is to take it to the landfill to be safely and responsibly disposed of.
We salvage as much as we can off the boat such as the engine and trailer frame for scrap metal. This keeps as much out of the landfills as possible. These engines & trailer frames will then be reused in other boats, to keep them from getting junked as well. This is the most environmentally friendly way to dispose of old boats.
How Boat Salvage Yards Near Me Operate
Most boat scrap yards operate on a local levelmeaning they dont have national chains. These boat junkyards buy boats from people who feel they are too damaged or in some cases they just no longer want the boat. Some boats are in fine condition while others may be beyond repair or the owner just felt the repair cost wasnt worth the money. Maybe the vessel has simply reached its end of life.
In some cases the boat salvage yard will pick up the boat on a trailer, but owners also can drop off the boat to the scrap yard. In addition to boats some yards also will take jet skis, wave runners, sea doos and other personal watercraft vehicles. There are also salvage yards dedicated completely to Yachts, sailboats, or smaller vessels like pontoon boats.
A boat salvage yard in some instances will purchase a boat from an insurance company. When an insurance company replaces a boat in a total loss claim or has salvage charges it is responsible for the one that no longer works or perhaps has sunk and needed to re raised. This makes for a great relationship between the insurance company and the boat scrap yard. The scrap yard gets a good price on the boat, which they can sell the the used parts off of and the insurance company recoups some of the money from the claim.
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Is It Possible For You To Dispose Of Fibreglass
It is possible to dispose of fibreglass in a manner that will not adversely affect the immediate environment. If you frequently use fibreglass, it is evident that one day the item will outlive its usefulness and you will need to dispose of it. Subsequently, you will need to use the right channels to get rid of the item.
Here are some steps you should take when properly disposing of fibreglass:
Step 1: You may have some of the items in your house covered in fibreglass. This may include old car stereos, tables, and chairs. Firstly, you can start eliminating the fibreglass by separating it from the item it is embedded on.
Though an unnecessary step, it enables you to recover some parts of the object covered by the glass fibre. A scraper or a heat gun may come in handy when youre peeling the glass fibre from the item.
Step 2: The second step may entail cutting the fibreglass into tiny pieces using a knife or a jigsaw. It enables you to reduce long races into manageable ones.
Step 3: After that, you can go ahead and throw the chopped pieces into a trash bag or dustbin. You can then look for a proper way of disposing of the portions. You can either do this by taking them to the recycling centre nearest you or disposing them into a fibreglass recycling bin.
Landfills In The Sunny States
Florida and California, two top boating states with millions of registered boats between them, have state agencies and local and regional programs designed to manage derelict vessels. Most removal projects in Florida require environmental permitting from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, depending on jurisdiction.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission offers grants that local governments can use to get rid of derelict and abandoned vessels after the owner has been provided due process. In fiscal year 201819, Florida allocated $1,000,000 for this program. The vessels currently end up in a landfill.
California had approximately 800,000 registered recreational boats in 2018. California State Lands Commission has an Abandoned Vessel Program, which provides the commission the authority to remove problem boats blocking or polluting waterways. California’s Division of Boating and Waterways sponsors a no-cost Vessel Turn-In Program , aimed at the boater. Although recycling and dismantling usable parts can be part of these removal and disposal programs, the fiberglass hulls still end up in a landfill.
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Youre Always Welcome At The Dump
Surprisingly, landfills are not the worst place to send fiberglass, since most of them are vault types, which are not supposed to leach, explained Aaron Barnett from the Washington State Sea Grant, an organization that helps fund that states efforts to remove derelict vessels from the environment.
Just how many legacy boats are derelict and need to be dealt with is not easy to determine. In 2019, prior to the recent COVID-induced boat-buying boom, there were approximately 11.88 million recreational vessels registered in the U.S., according to recreational boating statistics, one million fewer than at the peak, in 2007. How many of that one million are derelict is difficult to say. According to the Rhode Island Marine Trades Association , Between 2003 and 2012 an estimated 1.5 million recreational craft were retired in the U.S. This rate of disposal is not expected to slow down, as many first-generation fiberglass boats have begun to reach their end-of-life status. Running with this estimate and assuming that a similar number of boats might have reached retirement age since 2012, wed be looking at approximately 3 million end-of-life boats in the U.S. in the past 20 years.
The problem of abandoned fiberglass boats affects waterfront communities around the world, from Norway, where this image was taken, to small island nations in the South Pacific with few disposal resources and little landfill space.
How To Dispose Of A Boat
There are four main pathways to disposing of your boat. These are:
Generally we want to avoid the fourth solution! And in most cases you dont need to pay for the boat to be removed.
In order to determine your path forward, youll need to start by evaluating your existing conditions.
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How To Get Rid Of A Boat In Nh Me & Ma
We have been there. Your boat is done… for whatever reason – swamped, old, bad motor, cracked hull, or you’re just tired of seeing it rot away every year. Whatever the reason is, we can remove all types of boats, with or without trailers. We offer the most affordable boat removal service in New England. If you need it gone, we will make it happen. We responsibly dispose of our boats and can typically get them picked up and hauled away in as quickly as 24 to 48 hours from the time you contact us.
We also haul junk everywhere in New Hampshire and Eastern Massachusetts
How To Get Rid Of A Boat: Disposing An Old Boat
The real question that many people have asked is, how long is that boat going to sit there? Weve all heard that the worst thing for a boat to do is to sit. Which is extremely true, it is the first step to becoming a problem in the boat owning world. So
How To Get Rid Of A Boat or Dispose Of An Old Boat? There are only four real options to get rid of a boat. You can either sell it, donate it, recycle it, or have it taken to your local trash dump.
Getting an old boat out of your yard can be a grueling process. Here are your best options on how to begin and complete the process of getting that old boat gone!
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Evaluate Your Existing Conditions And Options
Before you decide to dispose of your boat completely, take the time to look at the boat to get an accurate understanding of what needs to be done, and how bad the situation is.
Also consider how much time and effort you want to invest into getting rid of your boat. If you dont think its going to be worth much, and youre going to spend a ton of time listing it for sale, fielding questions, etc., it may be best to donate it and be done with it.
Is it Seaworthy?
The first question to ask is whether or not your boat is seaworthy? If it is, theres a decent chance youll be able to sell it. But if not, it may cost more than what the boat is worth to fix. In that case, your best bet is to donate it.
And if there are savageable parts on the boat, you may be able to sell those off individually if you know what everything is and are willing to take the time to list it online.
Each person will land on a different point along the Sell/Donate continuum.
Contact Your Local Marina
Another good option is to contact your local marinas around you to decide on the best way to dispose of your boat. This is because disposal options change based on your location.
Some areas might have a salvages where they take your boat, dismantle it, and sell off the remaining parts. Additionally, they help with removing toxic and dangerous fluids and help with disposing of the equipment effectively.
Interesting Relevant Stat On New Boat Sales
If there is anything we are good at in the US, it is making boats. According to the National Marine Manufacturers Association, new boats reached nearly 320,000 units sold in 2020, up 13% compared to 2019 according to NMMAs December New Powerboat Registrations Report. That is a 13 year high in sales.
Why are new boat sales relevant to a boat salvage article? With new boats going in the water that means more junk, abandon boats, and parts for us. What happens to all the old boats. There are an estimated 35-40 million boats, many form the 1970s and 1980s that are reaching their end of life. Where do they go and how can we take advantage of the parts on them?
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Where Can You Dispose A Fiberglass Boat
In states and cities where boating is common, you should be able to find a vessel turn-in program that offers to take your boat off of your hands if you find that it no longer serves its purpose.
Again, these services are pretty limited since theres no market for them in some places. But if youre in these areas, then you should be able to access the service:
The Bitter End Of Boat Disposal
Old boats are a dime a dozen in New England and every year the problem keeps compounding. After a few years off the market, a used boats value drops precipitously and eventually it always seems to find itself under a tarp in someones backyard, or laying in waste at the back of a boatyard its fiberglass hull slowly turning black and waterlogged, its lines fraying from ultraviolet radiation.
Many of these boats will make their way to the landfill. But the path there is an expensive and time extensive process. Its estimated that it would cost $20 million to dispose of the estimated 1,500 abandoned or derelict boats in Florida alone. In Rhode Island, the smallest state with an almost-full landfill, the question of what to do with derelict fiberglass boats is a pressing concern.
Its not like you can recycle fiberglass like you can recycle a plastic bottle, says Evan Ridley, a Research Assistant at the Rhode Island Sea Grant. With fiberglass, youre breaking down that fiber resin matrix and then when you try to separate the resin from the fiber, youre going to lose a lot of the tensile strength that makes fiberglass a really valuable and useful material.
But while a fiberglass boat cant be recycled in the traditional sense, its end of life, says Ridley, doesnt need to be in the landfill.
You can make a difference. Follow these steps to create a positive future for the ocean.
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Sell It To A Salvager Or New Owner
If you have a decent sized boat, then it might be possible to sell it to a salvager. They will typically come out and assess the salvage value of your boat and if it makes economic sense, they will take it off your hands.
Salvagers might be able to get something of value out of your old fiberglass boat.
However, if it is not of much value then they will not accept it, even for free.
There might even be someone out there looking to buy an old junk fiberglass boat for a refurbishment project. You would be surprised at what people will buy!
Handy Hint: Click here for negotiation tips you can use when selling or buying a used boat.
