The regular antifoul paint we sailors put under our ship is ablative plastic mixed with biocides like copper (and other metals, if allowed). Ablative means: it works like soap in the water Slowly the paint dissolves and new biocides come free, killing the next organisms on your boat. The plastic and the biocides end up in the water, on the bottom, slowly poisoining the environment. Every year you have to repaint your hull with some layers. A repetitive process of emitting copper and plastic into the environment.
We put coppercoat on the hull of Ya. Coppercoat is a mix of epoxy resin and copper. It also protects your ship from the growth of foul. You have to put 5 or 6 layers on it. This means that you put about 4 to 5 times more copper on your boat. Every year you sand a picometer of epoxy off and then the stuff works about 10 years, or sometimes even longer. This reduces the emission of copper with 50% or more.. the sanded resin is very little compared to the thick layer of ablative plastic. And, now it is sanded off in a controlled environment; the epoxy ends up in the the boat yards sewer tank and finally in an incinerator.
