Marlow Ropes launches fully up-cycled and 'technically better' mooring rope at METS 2018
by Kate McCoy 11 Nov 2018 12:00 GMT
Marlow's 16mm Blue Ocean Dockline © Marlow Ropes
The world leading leisure marine rope manufacturer's latest innovation, the Blue Ocean Dockline, is the first 'technically better' premium dockline rope manufactured using yarn wholly made from plastic bottles. The development and production of recycled polyester (rPET) yarn combined with Marlow's engineering expertise has resulted in this latest rope innovation.
Seven and half waste plastic bottles are used to make one metre of Marlow's 16mm Blue Ocean Dockline. It is available pre-spliced in 12 mm and 16 mm diameters from 6m to 15m long. The Blue Ocean Dockline is exclusive to Marlow's mooring series and will launch to the UK market immediately, followed by the rest of Europe in 2019. The unique construction offers the same popular attributes of Marlow's other mooring products including good abrasion resistance and shock absorption with soft and supple flexibility and zero strength loss or shrinkage.
rPET yarns use 94 percent less water than oil-based PET fibres. The production process uses 60 percent less energy and there is a 32 percent CO2 emissions reduction. These yarns are then woven on site in Sussex at Marlow Ropes' manufacturing operation to create the Blue Ocean Dockline – 100 percent up-cycled plastic and fully waterproof.
Jon Mitchell, MD of Marlow Ropes said: "Virtually every piece of plastic ever made still exists in some shape or form — unless it's been incinerated. So re-using something as available as plastic water bottles curbs discards, reduces toxic emissions from incinerators, diverts waste from landfills, and, of course, requires fewer resources overall to be made — so that one-time purchase of a water bottle may stay useful, and stay in circulation, for many years to come.
"Like many progressive organisations, we are extremely conscious of our environmental impact and ensure that our manufacturing and waste management systems are in line with our environmental policy. All our manufacturing waste yarn is recycled where it can be, and this includes HMPE, polyester, nylon and aramid fibres. Off-cut ropes are donated to local schools and animal charities, and we have recycling policies across all other waste materials such as cardboard, wood and metal."
www.marlowropes.com