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 White Plains, NY - Come winter, hundreds of boats stored along the Long Island Sound and Hudson River are carefully wrapped in thick plastic to protect against the elements. Come spring, tons of that non-biodegradeable plastic is peeled off and tossed right into the garbage. Westchester County has a better idea that will be launched this week.
The Department of Environmental Facilities (DEF) will work with three marinas in the Sound Shore area on a pilot project to collect and recycle that plastic shrink wrap. Sixteen local marinas and boat storage facilities have agreed to collect the discarded wrap and bring it to one of three designated collection points: the city of New Rochelle marina, the city of Rye boat basin or Harbor Island Park in Mamaroneck. The DEF will pick up the material and deliver it to the Material Recovery Facility in Yonkers. The product can then be sold to recyclers for about $160 a ton to be manufactured into other materials.
“We’re talking about tons and tons of heavy plastic sheets that would otherwise go directly into our waste stream,” said County Executive Andy Spano. “If we can turn this material into products like guardrails, decking and benches, why wouldn’t we? We’ve already achieved significant success in recycling plastic bags and this is a logical next step.”
An average boat can use as much as 14 pounds of wrap (low-density polyethylene or LDPE) and the program is expected to collect up to 80 tons of plastic that would otherwise go into the waste stream as trash.
The county did a trial last week with the three marinas and collected two tons in only one day. Starting tomorrow, the material will be collected every Wednesday and Friday through the end of May.
For now the pilot project is conducted only in the Sound Shore area but will be considered for expansion to include Hudson River marinas.
The county began recycling monofilament fishing line last year to keep fish, birds and other animals from getting entangled in it. Recycling bins have been installed at popular fishing spots in county parks as well as at many bait and tackle stores and marinas.
An even more widespread effort involves encouraging residents to recycle all the plastic bags they collect at grocery stores and bring them back to the supermarket or to a Household Recycling Day. A law was also recently passed that would require stores of more than 10,000 square feet that distribute plastic bags to their customers to have an in-store collecting and recycling program.
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I remember as a kid everyone used plastic and canvas tarps - which was very green because you re-used it every year, but not nearly as effective as shrinkwrap that everyone uses now.
I'd like to hear if any other communities are recycling this stuff, or if everyone else in the world is just throwing it all away.