A crowdfunding scheme for Hampshire has been launched, in the latest of a UK-wide mission to provide long-term, out-of-date distress flare disposal solutions.
Ramora UK, the company behind the initiative, is hoping the Crowdfunder scheme will raise £85,000 to fund two dedicated collection points located in the Fareham and Lymington areas, to provide a free flare disposal service for up to 10 years.
The deadline for the Crowdfunder is 12:57pm 19 September 2017.
The company’s first regional crowdfunding campaign to be launched, for the Isle of Wight has so far raised £70 of a £45,000 target, with 12 days left to go.
Background
Since the Ministry of Defence teams stopped collecting out–of-date flares from Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) stations in 2009 there have been several attempts to fill the void.
Ramora UK says that despite considerable funds being expended in the establishment of these government-led schemes the appetite for taxpayer-funded waste disposal in this area is very much lacking.
The number of available locations around the UK for safe and compliant flare disposal is on the decline and whilst a number of manufacturers are trying to assist by taking in old flares when new ones are purchased, this doesn’t account for the many different flares from a broad range of suppliers and countries, which require disposal.
As a result of the lack in available disposal routes and in some instances the costs for private disposal, there has been an increase in people hoarding out-of-date flares.
Equally, recent years has seen a growing increase in the number of incidents involving the illegal dumping of flares which only result in elevated risks to those who discover them. In addition, the environmental impacts of flares which are poorly stored, left to go out of date or dumped illegally are considerable.
Often these types of flare are damaged or so old that road transport is not permitted by UK law and they need to be destroyed on site, causing pollution.
Flares in use during survival training. Credit: Dave Kneale/Volvo Ocean Race
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Crowdfunding to provide ‘permanent’ out-of-date distress flare disposal solution
A series of crowdfunding schemes will be launched to provide permanent out-of-date distress flare disposal solutions across the United Kingdom.
UK-wide solution
Ramora UK are looking to establish a nationwide solution with at least 23 permanent static collection sites located across the UK which would also be supplemented by planned 20+ collection day events (often termed amnesties) where members of the public can bring their old flares, free of charge.
The solution would include licensed drop-off points with patented storage units and trained staff to receive the flares. Each site would record all flares collected and an online system would ensure accurate accounting of items on the site and trigger notifications when approaching capacity.
Once a capacity trigger is activated a collection team will attend the site and remove all items for safe compliant disposal. It is envisaged that no sites would need more than three collections per annum but additional collections can be managed within the service due to nationwide coverage and likelihood of regular collection runs.