Ecology

Seaward wins Seatrade Award for Countering Marine Pollution

On April 29, the Seatrade Organization awarded Seaward its highest honor in the area of combating marine pollution. The award was made for the Seaward-US Navy project that recycled plastic waste from Navy ships into marine pilings. Seaward President Frank March accepted the award on the company’s behalf at the eighth Seatrade Awards Ceremony Dinner, held in London’s medieval Guildhall and attended by some 450 guests from the international shipping industry. His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent, KG, was guest of honor for the event.

Seatrade is a leading publisher of maritime journals and an organizer of shipping events around the world. The Seatrade Awards, referred to as the “Oscars of the Marine Industry,” were introduced in 1988 to stimulate and encourage innovation in the industry by recognizing companies and individuals that make substantial contributions in the areas of safety at sea, countering marine pollution, and innovation. A record 91 entries from 14 countries were submitted for this year’s awards. To be considered, project activities must have been introduced or approved during 1995 and must have been tried and proved practical in realistic situations before the end of 1995.

The winning Seaward-Navy project involves the removal of commingled plastic waste from Navy ships. This plastic is compressed and melted into disks at a 30:1 volume reduction. Eventually waste removal is expected to reach a rate of 10,000 lbs per day.

The disks are processed into a form which can be used as a center core in the SEAPILE Composite Marine Piling. Because the disks contain a certain amount of non-plastic waste, they cannot be used in traditional plastic recycling facilities and would otherwise have to be landfilled or incinerated.

The clear economic and environmental benefits of the project underlay its selection by the Seatrade judging panel, which was chaired by IMO secretary-general William O’Neil. Praising the exceptional standard and diversity of this year’s entries, Mr. O’Neil said, “...it is rewarding to see the willingness of gifted people to provide solutions to the technical problems which face the shipping industry today.”

Runners-up in the category of countering marine pollution were the Barbados Port Authority, West Indies, for the disposal of ships’ waste by smokeless incinerator; the BP Shipping Technical Group, Great Britain, for its longitudinal oil tight bulkhead for fuel tanks; and Glass Recycling, Inc., of Marietta, Georgia for its glass-disintegrating CruiseMaster Model 3100 and GallonMaster Model 4500.

Brookdale International Systems, Inc., Canada, took the award for safety at sea for its EVAC-U8® Emergency Escape Smoke Hood. And the award for innovation went to MAN B&W Diesel A/S, Denmark, for its L16/24 engine.

In addition to the technical awards, Seatrade also honored John Ad. Hadjipateras, Chairman of the Greek Shipping Co-operation Committee, as its Personality of the Year. Proceeds from the awards program will benefit The Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the Seatrade Sail Training Project for disadvantaged youngsters. Official sponsors of the 1996 awards dinner were BP Marine, American Bureau of Shipping, OOCL, and Inchcape Shipping Services.

Seaward brings new technologies to recycled plastic marine products

A structural engineer on a job site summed it up best when he said...“Seaward brought in the big guns with this product.”

The Society of the Plastics Industry obviously agreed when they presented their 1994 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE as well as the BEST OF MARINE CATEGORY PRODUCT AWARD to Seaward for its innovative new product, the SEAPILE Composite Marine Piling, at this year’s SPI Composites Institute Annual Conference and EXPO.

Advantages of the new composite plastic product developed by Seaward chemists and engineers range from environmental to practical; practical, inasmuch as the piling is resistant to chipping and is impervious to solvents, corrosion and marine borers; environmentally safe as it is primarily made of Duralin, a 100% recycled plastic. When reinforced with fiberglass, SEAPILE Composite Marine Piling is totally non-corrosive and non-magnetic. Where extra support is required, steel reinforcing is available.

The first of its kind to be introduced in decades, SEAPILE Composite Marine Piling has, according to Seaward President Frank A. March, “generated tremendous interest that has surpassed our expectations.

This response,” he added, “is a compliment to the dedication of the Seaward family who took the idea from concept to reality in just thirteen months.”