Have you wondered what could be made from recycled packaging foam?  Surfboards!  Join Waste Management and Sustainable Surf in the Waste to Waves Earth Day Foam Recycle Drive!  If you've recently purchased a TV or appliance and aren't sure what to do with the large foam packing sheets, bring it to this event.

Sustainable Surf and Waste Management will collect materials from 11:00 AM until 4:00 PM on April 26th at the City of Manhattan Beach’s annual Earth Day Celebration and Concert in Polliwog Park, located at 1601 Manhattan Beach Boulevard. 

Free raffle tickets will be given to people that bring their waste Styrofoam to be recycled. Raffle prizes include a surfboard made from recycled foam, shaped and glassed by Ryan Harris of E-Tech Boards, and Spyder Surf and Sector 9 skateboards.

“A passion for surfing and for the ocean inspires all of Sustainable Surf’s projects and it’s exciting to help create something as useful and beautiful as a surfboard out of trash,” said Kevin Whilden, co-founder of Sustainable Surf. “The Waste to Waves program has successfully collected over 40,000 pounds of waste packaging foam in the past three years and we are very excited to be working with Waste Management to continue increasing that number.”

All clean packaging foam received will be recycled, and made into new products like surfboards. A complete list of acceptable materials can be viewed here. Visit Waste to Waves and Sustainable Surf or email askgreen@wm.com for additional information.

Learn more about what is and is not accepted at the event:

What kind of foam can be recycled in Waste to Waves?

The Waste to Waves program can only accept clean, white, Expanded Polystyrene foam (EPS) used in packaging. EPS is more commonly known in the USA as “styrofoam”, and although they are typically used interchangeably to mean the same thing by the general public -  Styrofoam® – is actually a trademarked product of the Dow Chemical Corp. and is chemically a completely different product than Expanded Polystyrene foam.

EPS is used in packaging to protect fragile equipment such as televisions, computers, and furniture. It is also used as insulation, some food containers like cups, and of course, as surfboard blanks. EPS foam is hard, rigid, and very light since it is 95% air.  It is always white in color.

What kind of foam cannot be recycled in Waste to Waves?

Unfortunately, we cannot accept the following:

• EPS foam containers from food service. We cannot take the risk of any food contamination at all for recycling purposes.
• No packing “peanuts”. Take these to any UPS or FedEx/Kinko's store, because they will re-use them.
• No foam that is flexible, soft, or rubbery. This isn’t EPS foam, and it will contaminate the EPS load for recycling purposes.
• No old surfboards. Give these to NGO Rerip instead to be re-used, or re-purposed.