That’s what I would think
also. I don’t have any experience working in plastic manufacturing, but I, too, would think that where the component plastics themselves were made would be where the generation of any (or most) waste or toxic byproducts would occur. I’d also expect that with as much of these component plastics being made, and for as many purposes as they are being applied to, that there’d be safeguards at the place of manufacture in place to handle them, for economic as well as environmental reasons.
It doesn’t surprise me that toxic wastes from plastic manufacture exist. I’d expect that manufacturing safeguards were at first lax and have been becoming more stringent ever since.
That’s why I found this “rumor” odd and was surprised by it, since I’d never heard it previously in spite of Royalex being around for quite a while. Just wondered if others had heard it also.
(I also agree we use too much oil, though I also think in some ways there are many worse uses for it. Plastics do provide a very good material that could last almost forever in the proper applications saving metals or forest products which also have their environmental costs… BUT, here we are for the first time in human history with plastics - materials that don’t rust or rot, can last hundreds of years, easily formed, that can be designed to whatever density is required, that don’t waterlog - and what do we do with it? Make sporks and all manner of disposable crap that can’t be disposed of. WTF??? Sure glad we’re such a smart species.)
I think it was an old Blue Hole catalog (not a very reliable source of technical information, I’ll grant you - just something I read and happened to remember)had me thinking that Royalex was basically made by taking two sheets of ABS with a single-side poly coating and cementing them together (ABS side to ABS side) with a material that expanded into a foam when it was heated and which hardened into a closed cell foam that held its shape upon cooling on a mold.
But far from where the chemical manufacturing occurred. This guy who mentioned this to me seemed to be saying that there was some sort of toxicity unique to Royalex, independent of its component plastics.
I will say that the last canoe I bought, I bought precisely because it was Royalex (the old Royalex at that). And I wouldn’t want to have it in any other material. Personally, I’ll happily take almost any Royalex canoe into places I’d be darned reluctant to take any composite, w/c, or aluminum canoe for fear of trashing them. I’m going to miss Royalex.
There will soon, I’m sure, be those who consider Royalex canoes to be dinosaurs - but, darnit, weren’t those dinosaurs magnificent creatures?! Sturdy, nimble, colorful… Perfectly adapted for their habitat. Extinction is a sad thing.
Life is short
Hold your canoe close
Yep
The dinosaurs lasted until a mega asteroid got cozy with earth’s orbit. Now, man, living on fossil energy, is the asteroid, the mother of the earth’s new mega extinction event. Just thought I’d give this royalexophility a little deep time context. Party on.
Obviously the solution is more chines!