Yachtsmen in Chichester Harbour can now be as green on the water as they are on the land. A new scheme has been introduced in Chichester Harbour to help them sort and recycle their newspapers and wine bottles whilst afloat.

Chichester Harbour Conservancy is proud to support an ambitious project to provide harbour-wide recycling facilities for sailors. The project aims to supply marine businesses and organisations throughout Chichester Harbour Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) with the equipment, facilities and information to be able to recycle their waste. For marinas and sailing clubs this means customers and members will now be able to recycle their vessel landed waste from trips out on the water.

During the first year of the scheme, Stirling Consultants worked with five maritime organisations to audit current waste facilities and provide recycling solutions. The project partners were Chichester Harbour Conservancy, Chichester Marina, Emsworth Yacht Harbour, Northshore Yachts and Thornham Marina. In future, it is hoped to roll the scheme out to all marine businesses and sailing clubs within Chichester Harbour AONB.

As part of the scheme, boat owners are provided with durable, re-usable, bags to collect their waste on-board and bring it ashore to the new recycling facilities. Harbour-users will be able to recycle glass, paper and cardboard, plastics and cans. Information and signage has been provided to tell people what can be recycled and where.

Richard Craven, Deputy Harbour Master said, ‘The aim of the project is to make recycling easy and convenient for harbour users – after all, we are all used to recycling at home now, so why not do the same on the water?’

The project has been undertaken by Stirling Consultants, a Kingsbridge-based maritime business consultancy. The Conservancy is supporting the scheme through the Chichester Harbour AONB Sustainable Development Fund.