Re-thinking the recreational craft business under a circular economy perspective

Circular economy is a new interpretation of the industrial system in which the use of goods and materials is maximized, changing drastically the old concept of linear economy. Nonetheless, not all the industries are ready to catch the opportunities offered from this concept. The aim of this thesis is the evaluation of the opportunities that circular economies could give to the Italian recreational yachting, assessing if the new model could improve the performance of the current business. After an initial investigation on the overall market, the focus has moved on the recreational yachting market, which is recognized as symbol of made in Italy all over the world. After years of crisis it is ready to restart its growth. The analysis has identified the End of life boat as the main improvable activity of the supply chain on which apply the circularity concept of this sector. Thus, it has been analyzed in detail the market of EoL boat in order to understand its dimension and its trend. Then, the studies were focused on the analysis of the main material and component present on boat, which allowed to estimate the possible value of EoL and the actors directly involved in the end of life boat. Hence, few scenarios are presented which are able to improve the EoL management, generating value and thus representing a resource for the entire supply chain. These scenarios show solutions with new technology for fiberglass recycling or without any new implementation. Finally, the scenarios were supported by an environmental impact analysis to verify their effective capacity in decreasing the pollution generated from the EoL recreational craft.