Why do sails matter?

What we do // Sustainable Sails

Sails are important

Sail cloth spans the continuum, from woven Nylon and PET fabrics, laminated cloths all the way to high technology carbon fibre composites.

Sails are designed to be durable, high performance and UV resistant, to ensure we can all sail to our maximum potential. Unfortunately, this means we have complex blends of composites and plastics, which are more difficult to manage when our sails reach the end of their life.

Current sail cloth technologies may be high performance fabrics, but only 1 % of sail cloth has a second life, after it’s time on a boat, generally as a bag or jacket. Until 2022, none of these sail cloths were recyclable.

This meant that sails ended their life in storage, incineration or landfill. This has an enormous environmental impact, from the greenhouse gases produced, to microplastic release or heavy metal accumulation. Not only was this a challenge, but this issue was growing, as the sail cloth market grew.

The sail cloth market

The sail making industry was valued at over $500 million in 2022 and produces 13 million metres squared every year. This is about 2000 tonnes of sails, which would cover the same area as Greater London if laid out. About the same amount of sails reaches the end of life every year.

With over 1.5 million yachts and 1 million dinghies globally, and market growth of 3% annually, this source of waste is one which is both growing and is not being addressed within the industry.

Sails are now being used on ships once more, because sails can be used to generate power or motile force. The wind assisted shipping market is already valued at USD 1 Billion (International Windship Association., 2023) and is growing rapidly. So sails are becoming even more common.

The challenge

With a growing market, high technologies and extremely limited solutions for end of life sails, we embarked upon our Sustainable Sails program, to develop recycling solutions for sail cloths currently on the market.

This research and development program has been successful and Sustainable Sailing has been the world’s leading sail recycling company since 2022. We can recycle all common sail cloths ever built and are working with organisations to ensure future cloths are recyclable from their inception. Sail recycling is now available across the UK, for individual sailors, teams and organisations such as sail makers.