Green Your Boat Cleaning Routine

BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water

Most of the cleaners performed similarly well in the cleaning performance tests, with a few stand outs and a few disappointments. We did not find much correlation between environmental impact and cleaning performance. Meaning that generally the "greenness" of a cleaner did not impact its ability to clean.

Regardless of your choice of cleaner, how you use it can determine your environmental impact as much, if not more than, the toxicity and degradability of the product itself. Factors such as how much you dilute a product, how much you use, and where you clean your boat all contribute to the amount of product that ends up in the environment. Here are some tips to remember:

Rinse your boat often to prevent dirt
and debris from accumulating.

Rinse your boat regularly with fresh water to prevent dirt and debris from accumulating. Follow the dilution recommendations on all cleaning products. It is important to use the cleaning product as specified – whether applied directly to the hull, mixed in a bucket, or attached to a hose. We found that in most cases where the product had a range of recommended dilutions, that the stronger mixture worked equally well as the weaker mixture. So save yourself some money and stick with the weakest recommended solution that works. Use an environmentally friendly general boat soap for an overall cleaning, then spot treat those troublesome stains with a stronger product. We found that regardless of "green" claims, the five cleaners that were directly applied with a spray or a paste were hundreds, to thousands of times more toxic when used as directed than the 15 boat soaps that are mixed with water in a bucket. Minimize runoff of any cleaning products by using a towel after harsh spot treatments.

Biodegradability - relates to the amount of time it takes a substance to break down into harmless components.

Toxicity - relates to the negative effects of the substance on all types of organisms.

Use more concentrated cleaners for
 spot-treaments and use a diluted boat
 soap for all-over cleaning.

Phosphate-Free – Means that a compound is free of phosphates. Phosphates have long been used in many cleaning products and fertilizers. They can also be found in sewage, urban and agricultural runoff. Phosphates promote plant and algae growth that can be harmful as it depletes oxygen in the water needed by other organisms.

Post Consumer Recycled - Post-consumer material is an end product that has completed its life cycle as a consumer item and would otherwise have been disposed of as a solid waste. Post-consumer materials include recyclables collected in commercial and residential recycling programs, such as office paper, cardboard, aluminum cans, plastics and metals.

Always follow the instructions on the

 product's label. If there are multiple

 options for dilution, choose the weakest.

Recyclable – the product is suitable for recycling though common methods. This product does not necessarily contain any recycled content.

Recycled – composed of materials that have been recovered. Recovered materials are wastes that have been diverted from conventional disposal such as landfills for another use. Recovered materials include both pre-consumer and post-consumer wastes. Pre-consumer materials are generated by manufacturers and processors, and may consist of scrap, trimmings and other by-products that were never used in the consumer market.