I have a couple of old canoes, Royalex and composite, I just want to get rid of. Not sell, just discard. My garbage man won’t take them away.
How do you throw away a canoe? (Legally.) (Semi-legally.)
cut 'em up
Take a saw to them and cut them into pieces.
Are the beyond being useable? Seems that there are always programs looking for canoes.
recycle…
In my area, if I don’t want something that may have some value, I just put it on the curb with a “free, take me” sign and it is usually gone in a few hours.
Even a canoe in terrible shape can be made to float okay for a few bucks in bondo and/or fiberglass resin available at auto parts stores or wally world.
somebody would take the canoe if offered up for free.
Joe
One that I cut up was a tricky little
solo boat, and I thought it would be a danger to anyone who just took it from the curb. But for many old boats, your suggestion is a good one.
My other discard’s poly hull was already too cracked to repair. When the trash men kept ignoring it, I cut it into pieces and stuck them into a garbage can. They got the point. That was in '83, before recycling.
Set
Set them out and let someone steal them!
Two options
Call local restaurants that already have an outdoor theme going (and high ceilings). Old beat up canoes are often very cool looking.
Or, put in on your car and drive to a bad part of town and park you car. This may also get rid of your car or certain parts of it.
Or, just thought of this, sneak out one night and find some creative place to heft it up on a building or structure – in a very visible location. A water tower would be great, but most of those are fenced in these days. Maybe an abandoned building or something. The harder to remove the canoe, the better.
If the “For Free” sign doesn’t work,
a Sawzall makes quick work of it. I’ve done a Sunfish and an eight ft. dinghy, but I had a dumpster to work with. Pieces small enough to bag might take an hour or so of work. Do it somewhere you’re not likely to walk barefoot and don’t be surprised when, shortly after you’re finished, someone inquires about the free canoes!
Put a For Sale $5 sign out
Free connotates the boat has no value. A dollar sign means value. And the “thief” has the satisfaction of stealing.
Of course do not expect to get the five bucks.
This tactic worked on a really big tree stump.
So True
Post it on Craigslist for a few dollars and the phone will be ringing with in minutes.
Solid waste coordinator
– Last Updated: Aug-20-11 1:35 PM EST –
in the phone book for your city or county. Where I live I can drive a truckload to the dump once a month for free. Prisoners will sort through what's recyclable and what goes in the big hole. Dump's open every day but Christmas. Course we're pretty backwards down here.
Sell it to DougD
You might have to wreck it up a little before he’d be interested, and he apparently will pay for wrecked boats, too. The older and more hopeless, the better.
On a more serious note, some clubs and outfitters that teach river safety courses will accept beater boats if they are in good enough shape to use as pinning boats. So, you might contact organizations in your area that teach river rescues.
~~Chip
Reuse, recycle
One of our Pnet crew made a planter out of a canoe that had outlived its usefulness. Though it leaked, I guess, it didn’t drain well enough for use as a planter. He used it for target practice to remedy that situation. If he reads this, I’d leave him to tell the details of the story - but it involves a later sale.
They can, of course, be cut in half amidships, the halves stood on end and used for book shelves or storage in the garage or shop.
There’s a livery at one of the places I paddle that has cut one side out of the center of a shot royalex canoe and put what looks like maybe and old truck bench seat or the like in it. They use it for a porch chair. You sit at right angles to the keel line. Old lawn furniture cushions would do also… I suppose it could just as easily have been made into a swinging porch chair with a little lengthwise support (angle iron perhaps?) under the cushions.
I haven’t given up on any of my canoes yet, but I’ve thought about how to do it when (if in my lifetime) the time comes. That’s looking many patches into the future.
you forgot reduce!
get rid of em easy
Put em on the grass next to your driveway. When they get stolen you can call your homeowners insurance and get a new boat.
Thats a surefire way to increase your
insurance rates. “Nuisance” claims are not worth what they ultimately do to your pocketbook. There is no free ride.
However you can “lose” the boat on someone else’s property…Or just send it down Bulls Bridge.
Are you close to Mountmain Outdoor?
Drop them off there or at another closer canoe shop. I went to a canoe shop while visiting near Litchfield.
You could sink them, that’s always fun.
Yeah…
I thought of that… but I guess I just have trouble with the notion of “reduction” when applied to canoes, especially used ones - which is most of what I’ve bought.
I can’t bring myself to actually regret acquiring any that I have and I use them all with some regularity. (I used four of my six just last week, either myself or as loaners to folks floating with me.) Further,I’m uncomfortable with the implication that if I ever got another it would be excessive consumerism or something.
Canoes are rather modest purchases in the grand scheme of things, after all. Not like owning a bunch of yachts, bass boats, ATVs, or even cars. I’ll reduce by not having a washing machine, AC, dishwasher, snow blower, keeping the same truck for 400K (which I just turned last week), etc. Spend the savings on a used canoe every four or five years if an irresistible deal presents itself.
Craigslist
One man’s trash is another’s treasure!
Craigslist
One man’s trash is another’s treasure!
Sledge hammer is used
by some trash collectors for bathtubs, but a canoe composite is definitely different.
I’d go with the saw.