I had first researched about the potentials and state of things of this upcoming industry branch, yacht recycling, in 2014. A lot was happening already back then, so I collected, sorted and published much info about it for about two years. And offered it for free, via a blog called Yachtrecycling News. Under a Creative Commons license, this one CC-BY-SA 4.0. The fascinating wayback machine (“more than a trillion web pages saved over time”) still has a copy of the original, too.
With that work I got to know some very capable professionals, developing new, sustainable yacht building materials or experimenting with new processes of safe dismantling. Working hard towards a more sustainable yachting industry. I learned a lot from them about their innovations and this upcoming new industry branch. One of them, (meanwhile retired) naval architect Eric Sponberg, had first written about the problems with and potentials for yacht recycling, from a US perspective. He shared his perspective later once again. Find his thoughts here. And an update here.
Slightly bizarre but not totally unexpected side effect of all those freebies of mine: My material soon showed up in commercial articles, without attribution, verbatim in part. Lesson learned, I decided not to fret. Life is short. And I knew there was so much more to come up to report about in this lively landscape of the upcoming industry branch yacht recycling. New events, publications, approaches, cooperation across industries and countries.
Time flew on, life and Covid got in the way. Fast forward 10 years and I see new developments. So I decided to have a fresh look at the yacht recycling landscape in 2026. What you’ll find here is a snapshot of my work from 2014 – followed by an update of that research, starting in January 2026.
This time my work as of 2026 is subject to the creative commons license you see below. And I now also have a substack page where you can actively support my ongoing research: https://melecoronato.substack.com/.
First, the history / 2014 snapshot:
The links below lead you to the original posts of my Yacht recycling news website. I am checking all the links I had built into the text back then – a mouthful, so have patience. Many links have expired, others have changed into their own respective updates worth a fresh look today:
- Original opening note – why I started that yacht recycling research
- Where is the problem, why is yacht recycling needed?
- Legal side: The new recreational craft directive
- Main challenges with yacht recycling
- Potentials of yacht recycling
- Which yacht components can be recycled at all?
- Parties involved in yacht recycling
- Who is active already in the landscape (snapshot of 2014)?
- Best case scenario: How should yacht recycling work?
- The yacht recycling process
- Costs of yacht recycling
- Who should pay for yacht recycling?
- Crowdfunded yachtrecycling?
- Materials to win back through yacht recycling
- Work site requirements with yacht recycling
- Revised guide: The new recreational craft directive
- Report from the 2014 Boot conference, Düsseldorf (Germany)
- How many yachts are out there, approaching their end of life?
- EU funding opportunities for yacht recycling
- SME evaluation, criteria for proposal success: 6 first insights
For the updates from 2026 onwards, go here: