#211 Europe’s Boating Industry Goes Circular: Insights from boot Düsseldorf 2026
11.03.2026 16 min Staffel 5 Episode 169
Zusammenfassung & Show Notes
This episode follows Ilkay Özkisaoglu as he interviews key leaders at the Blue Innovation Dock during boot Düsseldorf 2026. He documents how the European Boating Industry, EuCIA and ECCA are advancing circular composites, scaling recycling technologies and shaping EU policy for sustainable boating. Through expert perspectives from Philip Easthill, Raphaël Pleynet, Julia Minici, Marina Palumbo Cardella and Guillaume Perben, listeners gain a clear view of how innovation, regulation and industry alliances are driving the transition toward a circular marine economy.
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YouTube Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-icSvRw7Vg
Transkript
So I'm the first time
at the boat show here in Dusseldorf.
January the 22nd, 2026.
And I came specifically on this day.
Dear community, because this afternoon
the EBI, European boating industry
organised a stage presence for composites.
So we were talking
or the speakers and the panels
were talking about composites
recycling all afternoon long.
And I have to say, I'm really thrilled.
Particularly I'm here
at the Blue Innovation Dock
organised by the EBI.
What is the EBI?
This is the European boating industry.
And here this afternoon
they have dedicated one afternoon just
for composites,
the panels and the speakers.
We are talking about composites recycling.
And I found that so important
to cover this.
And in this video
you will see a lot of interesting parts
and information and content.
And I'm presenting you
the most influential minds of our industry
and in the boating industry.
Stay tuned.
Good afternoon dear LinkedIn Community
Composites Lounge members,
ECCA signatories and also ECCA members.
We are here at the boat
and I have the huge honor
to welcome with me.
Phillip. Phillip Eastman
is the Secretary General of the Ebi.
Ebi stands for European Boating Industry.
Thank you, Philip
for being part of our show.
-Thank you very much for having me.
Great to be here.
-Let's talk about, Phillip
as you as a person first,
because I've got to known you,
dear community, you have to know
that he's also a working group member
of the ECCA,
the European Circular Composites Alliance.
But we will come to that later.
First of all, what is your job at EBI?
Give us a glimpse on who is Phillip.
-So I'm the secretary General
of European Boating Industry,
which is the European umbrella association
of everything
related to Recreational boating,
from manufacturers
to tourism to infrastructure,
everything related
to recreational boating.
How did you come to boating industry?
Are you, have you studied boating
or are you a passionate boat sailor?
-I'm also a passionate boat and sailor
since a fairly young age,
and I've worked also
as a sailing instructor.
But I love this industry
in all of its aspects.
-That actually is not a surprise to me.
You have to have the passion.
And regarding the boat
itself, I'm actually a community.
First time at the boat show.
I was at Metstrade 2 or 3 months ago.
It was cool, but no big boats to to see.
But here is a lot of boats. So let's talk
about the European boating industry,
your role and your major purpose
with the EBI.
Tell us about
what's your mission with EBI.
So the mission of EBI is really to advance
the recreational boating industry
in a sustainable way.
And also the nautical tourism industry
made in Europe.
So we are based in Brussels
because our main work,
our main mission is the advocacy work
to represent the industry
at the European level,
but we also do a lot of process
and a lot of work
related to sustainability, to circularity
and other topics
that are really important to the industry.
-So the boating industry
is one of the major verticals
for composite materials.
How important are composites for you
as an industry association?
So like I said,
it's one of our major topics.
But I think the boat industry is really
at the genesis of the composites industry.
This is really the start of composites.
And where many other industries,
from wind energy
and from automotive and transport
are really benefiting.
So we are one of the first ones
to use composites, which has been
really important to our industry.
And now since many years
we as an association,
but also many of our companies,
our members are really working
now on the circularity and the end
of life of composites in a wider sense.
So I came here specifically
for this afternoon community.
It's the 22nd of January
2026 on the afternoon,
and Philip and his team, they organised
basically this composites Materials
recycling circular topic.
Thank you so much
for highlighting the composites market.
And you're representing
really our market sector, our branch here.
And that was so fascinating
that I said I need to come in
and see this.
So you have organized here the, I read it
on the wall "the blue innovation
dock" by boot Düsseldorf.
So blue innovation dock okay.
Blue is the water
basically innovation is also clear.
But why did you call it dock?
-It was basically the dock
where all of the different segments,
all of the key decision makers
of our industry,
but also from outside the industry,
like from the composites industry,
but also policymakers and politicians
have a dock at boot Düsseldorf,
where they can have
a harbor, where they can really come
together and discuss everything
around innovation, sustainability,
but also the political steps that need
to be taken to support our industry,
on competitiveness,
on tourism, on being strong,
on supporting the industry
in terms of jobs
and growth, but also on circularity
and sustainability.
So that's why we have organised
the blue innovation dock
to have brought this love here.
Now for the fourth edition.
-I like the picture of having a harbor
where we are coming together on a harbor.
That's cool.
Now give us an idea, Philip,
about your blue innovation dock.
I understand because I got an email
from Marina or a DM on the Sunday.
You already started on the Sunday
with your program here.
So up until today.
Now, from Sunday to Thursday,
give us a glimpse, a few highlights
if you are not overwhelmed by them.
Of course, give us a maybe day by day.
What happened here?
Day by day is impossible.
It's entire nine days
of a blue innovation dock.
So we have topics every day
focused on all of these different areas.
It's been really interesting
to also have politicians
here for policymakers
to understand
what they are thinking about our industry,
and how we can work together
to advance some of the sort of key issues
that we need to have support
from the policymakers
on, including circularity.
-But I've seen also tomorrow,
like the moderator, the host said,
tomorrow you have women
in boating industry, for example.
So you go not only in the parts
and the voting,
but also really the surrounding.
You keep the stakeholders
on this stage or dock, as you say.
Yes, exactly. So we really have topics
from nautical tourism,
marinas, circularity, digitalisation,
artificial intelligence,
business meets politics,
really all kinds of topics
that we are focusing on here
because this is really,
as you say,
the dock where we want to bring everything
together and have a really interesting
conversation for the industry.
Let me, before we move to ECCA,
ask the final question now,
we are at boot, which is an exhibition
of Messe Dusseldorf.
What is your relationship
as European boating industry
with boot or Messe Dusseldorf?
-We've been a partner of Messe Düsseldorf
or boot Düsseldorf for many years,
and we are working with them
to organize this blue innovation dock.
But also another event
called the Breakfast Meeting,
which is focused on the leaders
and the CEOs of the boating industry
on the Tuesday morning,
so you just about missed it,
unfortunately. And we've been doing that
for 11 years.
And now we just extended the collaboration
for another three years
until 2028 to organize this together.
And it's fantastic to have the support
of a trade fair
here of the organizers
that are really committed
and investing in this topic.
-So I missed it this time.
Be sure if you invite me next time
I will not miss it.
Awesome. We'll have you there.
-Okay, let's talk then about EUCIA.
The reason also why I'm here, of course,
is I'm supporting the idea of the ECCA,
the European Circular Composites Alliance,
as my community knows.
So one more time, thank you so much
that you are as a boating industry
as one of the major verticals.
So we have automotive,
aerospace and boating
is such an important vertical
here that you are supporting this.
And actually
you have an active role at ECCA too.
I had Julia Minici
the other day in the interview.
She is running two working groups
and you are running
also a working group called The cross.
Help me.
-Over- Cross Over.
The cross over working group at the ECCA,
which also I'm a member of.
So what is your mission
as a working group leader
with with that crossover group?
-So maybe first of all,
why are we involved
as a boating industry in ECCA?
Is because we think
that the solution to the issue
that we have with end of life
recreational boats
can only be found
if we are working together
across the composites industry.
We are one of the major verticals.
One of the main segments
that uses composites,
but it is only 2 or 3% of composite waste.
So we will not be able
to solve this issue on our own.
So we want to find partnership
across the composite industry,
from wind energy
to the producers of composites,
the presence of fibers, etc.,
to work together to find common solutions.
And that's really, really important to us.
That's why I took over also the position
as the chair
of the Crossover Working Group.
And in the Crossover Working Group,
we have a really powerful team of people
together with my co-chair,
but we have a pleasure of leading.
My co-chairs is Helen Boston,
who's also fantastic,
and we're working together
to bring the issues
that the other working groups
from industry,
recreational, aerospace, etc.
but they are findings
so that we can understand
what needs to change in terms of policy,
in terms of regulation,
in terms of standards, etc., at European,
but also at national level,
so that we can find the solutions
as an industry
that we are supported
by policy but not held back by policy.
So that's kind of the work
that we are aiming to do.
Now my final question is
what are your future plans?
What do you have now short term on 2026,
on your programme,
on your focus and the years to come?
-Is a great question.
So we just actually approved
our new strategy until 2028,
which is really around, again,
advancing the industry
on a lot of these topics.
So we have three clusters of work.
One is about industry and competitiveness
for sectors of our decarbonisation
and circularity. And the last one
is around nautical tourism.
So it's slightly different
to your usual field.
But on these three clusters
we are trying to advance
to develop the right policy framework
and the strategic framework
at European level.
Maybe just to highlight one example.
We're also expecting
the Circular Economy Act
of the European Union
to come at the end of this year.
I think in Q4 of this year,
we are planning to release it
and already together
with other partners of EBI,
including EUCIA, Wind Europe
and many others,
we have submitted our response
to the Commission's consultation
on this topic, and we really
think that can be a milestone
to advancing circularity in our industry,
but again, across the composites industry.
Thank you, Philip for this interview
was really a pleasure
to have you here on my tour.
-Thank you so much
So much. Thank you. So, Raphael,
what is your conclusion
of the Boot of today?
-You know my conclusion of today.
I would like to come back three years ago
when I participated
to a sustainability panel
and where we were talking.
Is it possible?
How can we organize and things?
And today I spent nearly three hours
in this panel and different presentation.
We are not speaking anymore,
if it's possible.
Yes it is. We are participants saying,
this is what I'm doing.
This is the project.
This is what I've done
for the last five years.
And now we are even more talking
about how can we present
this secondary recycling material
to the society,
either to the the consumer,
the B2C or the B2B?
The paradigm is ongoing.
The transition is is already progressing.
So I feel and I leave the boot
with a lot of enthusiasm
and confidence for the months to come.
That's what I would say.
-Well, Julia,
what is your conclusion on both today?
-It was a great two days.
First time at boot for me.
So what I found here is love for the sea,
love for adventure, love for nature,
love for craftsmanship
and love for innovation.
I did not see as much sustainability
as I was hoping to.
So there's sustainability in the talk
of cleaning up the ocean.
And that's definitely an imperative,
because we all know there's more plastic
than fish in the ocean.
I see sustainability
when talking about engine
and alternative fuel Consumption,
so definitely something to pursue.
The next frontier for me
is sustainability in material.
Making boats of recycled material
and building new boats for design.
For recyclability.
-So, Marina, tell me,
what is your conclusion about your stage,
the innovation, the blue innovation dock?
Well, we are very proud of the success
of the blue innovation Dock
this year at Düsseldorf 2026,
we had some great topics since Saturday
where we had politicians
coming from Brussels,
from the European Parliament
and Commission, and then afterwards
to Sunday, Monday, Tuesday
and Wednesday with a super interesting
topics that really brought a lot of people
to the stage.
From the startup pitch competition
they organised in collaboration
with team venture to the Superyacht
and Design Day on Wednesday,
and finally today with our friends
from the Composite World on stage,
talking about the end of life
and also topics
like, let's say, circularity topics
in general, talking about composites
from different industries.
-What is your conclusion of today at boot?
Well, to me, both is very special
because I am a boat owner, I'm a sailor,
have been for all my life,
and to see that alliances
like the one group Beneto talked
about with composite
recycling, the one that afterwind
Julia presents with the development
of those solutions, it says
things are moving and it sends the message
that over the last years
we've seen things move, accelerate
and structure. And the ECCA alliance
that Raphael Pleynet talked about
also as a boat owner is really key
because it shows me
that people work to find solutions for us,
and this is really important.
And I think it's just key
for the development
of the whole boating branch.
-(OUTRO TRAILER) Ilkay Özkisaoglu
creating sustainable value
with #composites360onTour
weekly on LinkedIn, YouTube
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