Dear readers,
Paint in autumn! - A few years ago, a major paint manufacturer used this slogan to advertise the long service life of its antifouling paints. This year, the campaign should be called: Buy in autumn, and stock up now! Because it is unclear, to say the least, what owners who want to buy paints containing biocides will have to face from 1 January 2025. This is because when the transitional regulations expire, sections 10 to 13 of the "Ordinance on the reorganisation of national sub-legislative provisions for biocidal products" will come into force, which does not bode well.
A ban on self-service is enshrined there, and proof of need must also be provided and a personal consultation conducted. The exact regulation we have presented here.
Even if the new levy rules are intended to ensure greater environmental and consumer protection, they are primarily at the expense of owners and small shops. This is because the purchase process is simply becoming more complicated. The days when highly toxic antifoulings from commercial shipping were transported to winter storage and processed in barrels are long gone. Today's coatings are already subject to an extensive authorisation procedure and have a low hazard potential. Otherwise they would not be allowed to be sold to private users.
As a rule, they are also processed properly and the residues are disposed of via the hazardous waste collection centres. Thanks to the existing EU-wide regulations, appropriate instructions can be found on every can and can be read there directly before use.
It is difficult to imagine to what extent a government-imposed dispensing dialogue, which was probably a few days, weeks or even months ago when the biocides were processed, will lead to more appropriate handling of the biocides. Nor will it reduce the amount of biocides used. At least I don't know of any owner who voluntarily rolls an unnecessary amount of antifouling onto the hull, especially as the products are not the cheapest. For a 35-foot yacht, you can easily expect to pay 160 euros per coat, and that's just for the paint.
The fact that each individual purchase process triggers a sales dialogue also seems impractical. Not to mention the requirements for online retail, which will also only be possible with a personal sales dialogue. It is unlikely that this will support bricks-and-mortar retailers, because unlike large mail-order companies, small outfitters cannot rely on centralised processing; the knowledgeable person must be directly in the shop - and have a holiday or sickness cover.
What really surprised me, however, was what I had to listen to when researching the topic. Enquiries at SVB, Bauhaus or Compass and others paint a clear picture: How to implement the new rules in practice is not only a challenge for retailers, there is also a great deal of confusion among the authorities involved. For example, which documents can be used to prove the need for biocides. "In the end, the lawyers who issue warnings are happy," said one of the people I spoke to, summarising the situation.
The only positive effect that could be gained from making the sale and purchase of biocide-containing products more difficult is the hope that biocide-free products will receive a boost. These coatings may continue to be sold as self-service products and are likely to move to the front of the shelves. However, even if all manufacturers are working on such alternatives, they are by no means suitable for all areas and require adjustments to the infrastructure, as none of the products can manage without gentle intermediate cleaning at the usual speeds and lay times of sailing yachts.
Instead of protecting the environment and consumers, the regulation is therefore more likely to lead to private stockpiling, as the material can be purchased unchanged until 1 January and retailers are already calling on consumers to stock up for the coming seasons, according to the motto: Buy in autumn!
Hauke Schmidt
YACHT editor
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