And one of those waste problems has been staring us in the face for a long time. In fact, you’ve probably seen it yourself but failed to notice the issue. But the next time you drive by a marina, pay attention to how much shrink wrap covers the boats in dry dock.
That shrink wrap is the problem, but Brightmark has the solution.
Thanks to a pilot program with Dry Dock Marina in Angola, Indiana – and supported by the Northeast Indiana Solid Waste Management District — we have figured out a way to recycle the shrink wrap and turn it into transportation fuel and wax at our plastics renewal facility.
The wrap, which is similar in structure to heavy-duty garbage bags you buy in the supermarket, are difficult to recycle because they are contaminated and seasonal. Our recycling process turns it into fuel sold to BP and reentered into the transportation fuel pool in the Midwest. An example of a circular economy, if you will.
Each boat has approximately 20 pounds of shrink wrap on it when it’s stored for the winter. If you were to take that number and figure it out among the more than 11 million boats registered in the United States, we’re talking about 110,000 tons of waste that, before we put this process into place, was being landfilled.
Now, it can be turned into 21,000 barrels of renewable fuel if all of the wraps in the country were to be recycled via this process.
According to Dry Dock Marine Center in Angola, Ind., this waste has been sent to landfills for the past 33 years, so this is a welcome change.
It’s what we do to make the planet a better place, and there are more unique solutions on the horizon.
With optimism and impact for the future,
Bob Powell
