Funding announced for design of recyclable boats

Innovation Maritime, located in Rimouski, Que., was given funding of $200,000 for their design of a recyclable boat project, Omar Alghabra, Minister of Transport announced.

“Supporting organizations like Innovation Maritime is not only good at the local level, but good for our country,” said Alghabra. “It allows us to continue to find recycling solutions and ensuring the development of more environmentally friendly boats. Thanks to contributions and ideas like this, we are building a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable Canada for today’s generation and for those which will follow.”

The goal of the project is to replace the components of the hull and deck with more ecological parts, and to develop a method to make dismantling the boat easier. A complete and functional prototype will be developed and tested under real navigating conditions.

“The choice of materials and assembly methods for composite boats bring certain challenges when dismantling and sorting materials,” said Sylvain Lafrance, Director General, Innovation Maritime. “This project will identify new solutions and test them in a real-world setting. Canadian companies will be able to use these innovative techniques to build more environmentally friendly boats and thus alleviate, for future generations, the burden of disposing of boats at the end of their life cycle.”