BOAT TODAY, BIN TOMORROW
By Trixie Tan
A new lease of life: After years of surf and sun, a polyethylene kayak can be melted down and remoulded into huge litter bins like these.
This kayak is built to last for about 10 years.
Then it can be recycled over and over again as bins, string, bags, water cans and even plastic cling film. This environment-friendly 30-kg kayak can be melted down and remoulded into four 85-litre litter bins or hundreds of metres of cling film.
Unlike its more common fibreglass cousin, which is used widely in Singapore, this kayak is made from tough but bio-degradable polyethylene. Polyethylene is an organic by-product of natural gas.
The American-made Ocean Kayak has an average lifespan of 10 years. Then the polyethylene can be sent to any plastics manufacturer to be recycled.
Mr. Lawrence Yip, General Manager (Kayaks) of LEC International Trading, said yesterday: "This is unlike the fibreglass ones which have to be sawn up and then dumped or incinerated."
But the polyethylene kayaks which his company has brought in are priced from $1,200 each. This means they cost about three times as much as a fibreglass kayak.
Mr. Yip said polyethylene kayaks were introduced five years ago and are replacing fibreglass models in America, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.
Source : The Straits Times, March 24, 1992
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