Safer for the Environment Boat Care Products
Mar 14, 2019
Background:
In the late 1970’s myself and a lady friend decided leave our corporate positions to spend 3 years backpacking around the globe.
Already having a bent to be an Eco friendly people, this odyssey was a real shock to both of us.
We travelled with a tent through about 75 countries, and being that close to the ground, we were stunned at some of the total misuse of our globe in many of these countries: Rivers on fire, no hygiene other than already polluted streams and yes, bodies floating by!
About 1980 the world caught up with us and we had to return home to Canada
Being a boater, I chose to join the Canadian marine industry in 1980 and with my Mechanical/Aeronautical Engineering technician background, began to develop a friendlier water based marine boat care line. We started with Head-O-Matic holding tank care, which we also sold to the airlines, Go Train and others.
We added on Boat Armour boat care, which some of you will remember, by manufacturing and marketing that USA line in Canada for them.
That line was sold off to another group in USA, so we created, in 1989, our own Natural Marine.
We decided that my chemist and I could develop water based products to rival the existing solvent based product on the Canadian market.
We were invited to Ottawa by a branch of the Canadian government to help begin to develop the Eco-Logo program, which we did.
In those days, I agree, it was tough to get water based products to rival the nasty solvents, because the raw materials then were not as good as they are today. In many cases, fortunately, we can now outperform many of them.
No question now there is a global movement by many to help preserve the environment. Be it by creating new consumer products with much less Eco impact or protecting our Great Lakes and Arctic Regions.
There are a number of environmental symbols being used in our marine business and it is wise to be cautious of some of these. This is sometimes referred to a Green Washing, when unscrupulous manufactures tuck a green branch or whatever grows on their product.
There are a few professional organizations that do try to monitor these rouge Eco-symbols , but very hard to track them all. Best to ask your fellow boaters whose symbol you can trust and their feedback on their results. In our case with Natural Marine we chose to partner with a well recognized national group like your CPS-ECP, to help bring the industry up to Eco-speed.
We work hard at selecting well respected groups in our various industries, like the CPS-ECP to help promote both parties. We do this by, as a CPS-ECP Proud Sponsor, adding the CPS logo on every marine bottle we manufacture. So there are now 10’s of thousands of CPS-ECP logos somewhere on your marina or mass retailer shelves.
Most of these are promoting our Eco-consumer products and also helping recruit new CPS-ECP members. Existing CPS-ECP members usually can spot these logos from a mile away!
As Eco-innovators Alex Milne Associates will continue to be a leader in developing key, Made in Canada, Natural Marine and Head-O-Matic boat care products to help give Canadian and international boaters the choice and also help protect my well travelled global environment.
Bill Milne
President
Alex Milne Associates Ltd
