Preparing surfaces by grit blasting, powering abrasive particles onto them using high pressure air, is the preferred methods in the marine industry as it is often the fastest and most thorough means of removing iron oxides, rust, oil, grease, dirt, old paint and other surface contaminates from vessel prior to making repairs and alterations.

Cleaning also tackles corrosion caused by soluble salts in the air, a major problem which can lead to premature paint failure if not removed.

Graham Billany, managing director at Dunstons said: "We've used copper slag for more than 30 years and while this is a cost effective material, we were interested in exploring the potential of recycled glass grit as an environmentally friendly alternative."

In the initial trials, recycled glass demonstrated improvements in productivity over the traditional copper slag of up to 240% and the time taken for blasting was reduced by up to half.

The performance of medium grade grit, supplied by Wolverhampton Abrasives, was compared with copper slag using the same blasting equipment.

The widespread use of recycled glass will assist the UK in meeting its target under the Europeans Union packaging directive, which says 60% of glass must be recycled by 2008.

Preliminary data for last year indicates that 50% was achieved.

www.dunstons.co.uk