Approximately 2,000 tonnes of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) sails are decommissioned or damaged beyond repair each year by the marine industry globally. Most of these sails end up in storage or landfills, left to decompose. Sustainable Sailing, a startup founded by two brothers with expertise in both sailing and chemistry, seeks to find alternative ways to process this waste.

In collaboration with the Sadler Lab at the University of Edinburgh, Sustainable Sailing recently secured funding from Innovate UK’s bio-based manufacturing Launchpad competition for Scotland, with additional support from the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC). Leveraging the Sadler group's expertise in engineered biology and green chemistry, the team has discovered a method to transform waste sails into high-value chemical compounds that are typically derived from petrochemicals.

Sails are crafted from durable synthetic textiles to endure harsh ocean conditions and extreme weather. Despite their resilience, they generally need replacement every five years. Professional racing teams go through several sails per event, and options for recycling these technical-grade materials are limited.

Sustainable Sailing has pioneered a process that uses high-pressure steam to break down the composite material of sailcloth into its chemical building blocks. These blocks can then be utilised in existing industrial and manufacturing processes. Initially, the startup aimed to convert these building blocks into other types of plastic but has since shifted its focus towards creating more sustainable materials. This project could potentially repurpose waste sails as an alternative to fossil fuels in producing high-value chemicals for everyday products.

Building on previous research that demonstrated the feasibility of converting single-use PET drink bottles into vanillin using engineered E. coli bacteria, the same process is now being tested to evaluate the potential of recycling sailing waste into similar chemicals.

Dr Joe Penhaul Smith, founding director of Sustainable Sailing, said: “Water sports and sailing have always been part of our family, so with my scientific background and my brother’s professional sailing experience we hope to use our skills to tackle the marine industry’s environmental footprint.

“Some decommissioned sails are turned into one-off clothing pieces or bags, but there’s no large-scale solution to tackle the waste material. This project aims to find a new circular recycling process where sailcloth can be broken down and repurposed into useful chemical compounds. The added benefit is that these types of compounds are traditionally manufactured from petrochemicals, so marine waste could become an alternative, more sustainable feedstock.

“The next stage of the process is to take it to a much larger scale, as well as working out the supply and demand dynamics to see whether it would be viable to have everyday chemicals manufactured in this way. There is also potential to extract different chemical building blocks for other industrial uses, and we could see additional types of technical textiles being recycled in this way in future.”

Dr Liz Fletcher, director of business engagement at IBioIC, added: “It’s great to see this collaboration between individuals in water sports, chemistry and engineered biology making positive progress, using engineered microbes to deal with waste materials that would otherwise go to landfill. Our work across the bioeconomy continues to prove that one industry’s waste can be a valuable raw material for another. Sustainable Sailing is reducing waste and helping to provide alternatives to petrochemical-derived products, supporting the UK’s ongoing push for net zero.”

Dr Joanna Sadler, Chancellor’s Fellow in Biotechnology and founder of the Sadler lab, University of Edinburgh, said: “We’re delighted to be part of this collaboration which draws upon our expertise to test the viability of using a biological system to upcycle plastic fibres from sails into high-value chemicals. The results from our research have already had major implications for the field of plastic sustainability and demonstrates the power of engineering biology to address real-world challenges.”