No Easy Answers for Old Flares

On Friday, we posted a letter asking what sailors should do with their old flares. The Latitude Nation responded in a big way, but we’ve found that there are no easy answers. Many of you said that some fire departments may take flares, and some of you have had luck with this. We made a few calls to a few Marin County fire departments this morning, all of whom said that they do not accept old marine flares. Many of you said that most HAZMAT sites also do not accept flares, which is true of our local household hazardous waste facility.

One of our readers summed up the problem: "The Coast Guard told us to take them to the Fire Department. The Fire Department told us to take them to the Hazardous Materials Recycling Center," wrote Marty, reflecting a run-around that many of you mentioned. "The Hazardous Materials Recycling Center said they won’t take explosives. We tried to donate them to sail/boating instruction groups, plus the Sea Scouts, who all stated they had more than enough for their training. The chandleries that sell the flares don’t have an answer.  [Chandleries] are happy to replace my combustible flares with electronic flares . . . leaving us still with the problem of old flares.

"A uniform, 50-state solution needs to be achieved. That sounds to me like a job for the US Coast Guard. Perhaps a USCG/USCG Auxiliary partnership of accepting the expired flares from boaters during annual inspections would help boater safety preparation, compliance with boating-related laws and regulations, and provide boaters with a safe means to get rid of expired combustible signaling devices. The local USCG Auxiliary could contract for safe local destruction. We could pay a nominal fee ($5.00?) to assist with the cost of this service. Just an idea . . ."

Locally, reader Ralph Greenwood said he’s had better luck at police departments. At the Novato PD, he’s managed to dispose of his parachute, 12 gauge and handheld flares. "The Novato Fire Department told me they can’t take them, but that I should just soak them in a bucket of water then throw away."

Another common solution we heard for old flares was simply to fire them off. "The Nawiliwili Yacht Club and Kauai Sailing Association are having a Coast Guard-approved flare day and inviting boaters to bring their expired flares to ‘practice’ with and dispose of them," wrote Jim Saylor of the Olson 30 Fast Company from Kauai.

"We had a Coast Guard-approved flare shoot for mariners several years ago," wrote Ron Hodel of the Catalina 320 Lokomaikai’ from Dana Point. "Every one of my old flares that I brought to the shoot fired off, some of them 15 years out of date. I hang onto my old ones in a container separate from my in-date flares. I’ve never needed to fire off a flare in an emergency, but if I ever have to, I’d sure like to have a good number of them."

Many of you asked why there isn’t a better system for recycling old flares in place, especially by vendors. "We pay a recycling fee when we buy tires and batteries. Why not a recycling fee when we buy flares?" asked David Orban of the Beneteau 42cc Kokua. "Return old flares to the point of purchase for disposal. I, like many boaters, have expired flares accumulating on the boat because there is no way to dispose of them. This can’t be safe."

Thanks to everyone who wrote in. We will have more of your responses in an upcoming edition of Letters, and we’ll see if we can’t help facilitate a longer-term, uniform solution to this flare quagmire.