Reducing your yacht’s dependency on single-use plastics is not just the right thing to do. It’s the SMART thing to do.

Eliminating plastic products such as water bottles and packaging saves time and labour in provisioning for, and correctly disposing of them, money in constantly buying them, and solves the storage problem of finding somewhere onboard for hundreds of plastic items. Adopting viable alternatives like reusable water bottles and filtration systems eradicates these issues.

We took a look at one of our yachts that has replaced sparkling bottled water with a soda stream and reusable bottles combined with an ALKAVIVA system. These figures were based on a 5 1/2 month charter period and a 32m heavy use charter yacht with 6 crew and 10 guests on board for 100 days of the season:

Full package alternative solution including:
– Installation
– 50 branded re-usable bottles
– extra set of filters
= €3700

Compared to:
– 2064 large bottles – crew only ‘cheap water’
Price per 6 pack €1.58
Total cost €543.52

– 2000 Small Evian bottles
Price per 6 pack €5.15
Total cost = €1716.60

– 1250 Large Evian bottles
Price per 6 pack €8.58
Total cost = €1787.50

– 450 Small San Pellegrino bottles
Price per 6 pack €5.86
Total cost = €439.50

– 800 Large San Pellegrino bottles
Price per 6 pack €7.46
Total cost = €994.67

Total spent on bottled water in 5 1/2 months = €4,487.12

You can already see a significant cost saving over just 5 1/2 months and this is without even considering the saving on time, cost, labour, storage.

There are also innovative companies such as Eco Works Marine, Environmental Yacht Services and Water Without Waste providing plenty of alternative options. Water without Waste (WwW)’s complete, sustainable drinking water solutions start at €1,500, a considerable cost saving for any yacht compared to plastic bottled water. They also conveniently offer variety (purified, chilled and sparkling water on tap) and deliver the healthiest drinking water (no BPA chemicals, bacterias, pesticides, disinfectional by-products from chlorination in the tanks, heavy metals, antibiotics’ and microplastics).

We know that there are significant challenges to implementing new products and practices onboard. We are here to support you every step of the way by providing a platform for the free sharing of information on viable alternatives to single-use plastic. This includes reviews on innovative new technologies, cost comparisons and environmental impact so you can make an informed decision for your yacht and reduce your single-use plastic consumption in a way that is tailored to your operational needs.

For some ideas on viable alternative products and practices please click here. If you would like to promote your viable alternatives, contact us by email: info@clearoceanpact.org

 

Richard Orme
Founder

As a child of the 70’s all I’ve known is plastic. A brilliant material used in many applications, plastic is here to stay. Like many people, the issue of single-use plastic pollution raised in the media over the past decade has always caught my attention, but I had been truly uninformed of the gigantic challenges we face to rectify the problem and stem the damaging effects it is having on our oceans, that is until now.

Having supported the Plastiki expedition in 2009, a brilliant alliance commissioned by David de Rothschild of Adventure Ecology to raise awareness, I now find my focus and 23 years experience in superyachting, solely aimed to uniting the industry with a non-biased, non-profit initiative that can make a real and immediate change to its dependency on single-use plastics and consumption as a whole.

Through the Clear Ocean Pact, a foundation formed in 2017 sparked by the need to “do something” about plastic pollution, I find myself at the beginning of a new chapter in my yachting career with potentially the biggest challenge ahead – uniting an industry to tackle a cause together that is greater than any one organisation within it.