Pennsylvania Volunteers Recycle 8,700 Pounds of Boat Wrap

Every spring, marinas around Lake Wallenpaupack face the same problem: hundreds of boats wrapped in blue plastic shrink wrap, destined for the landfill. This year, a team of volunteers decided that waste could become something better.

The Wallenpaupack Watershed Warriors partnered with local marinas and a recycling company called Ultra-Poly to give the boat wraps a second life. Instead of ending up in landfills where they break down into harmful microplastics, the wraps are now collected, compacted, and transformed into pellets that become new products like garbage cans and other household items.

At 1st Klas Marina in Tafton, owner Tom Mueller prepares about 500 boats each spring. That's an eight-week process that leaves behind mountains of plastic wrap, with each piece weighing 8 to 10 pounds.

"All that material ends up in the landfill, then ends up in the watershed in Lake Wallenpaupack," said Rick Shema, a Penn State Extension master watershed steward for Wayne County. "Plastics are particularly harmful because they degrade into what are called microplastics."

The solution is working beautifully. Volunteers arrive at participating marinas every couple of weeks during spring, tossing bundles of wrap into a compactor truck one by one.

Since launching in April, the program has already collected over 8,700 pounds of shrink wrap. That's the equivalent of more than 728,000 grocery bags kept out of the local watershed.

The Ripple Effect

What started at one marina is spreading across Wayne County. Six marinas are now participating, and volunteers are actively recruiting more partners to join the effort.

Todd Schreck, business development manager for Ultra-Poly, explains that recycling this plastic extends its usefulness far beyond a single winter season. "Products that we buy off the shelves every day, like your curbside garbage can and things of that nature," he said. "We're extending the life of this plastic."

For Mueller, the new program solves a problem that's bothered marina owners for years. "They are coming every couple of weeks during the spring, and we are taking all of that plastic and getting it recycled and keeping it out of the landfill, which is great."

The volunteers aren't just protecting Lake Wallenpaupack; they're proving that community action can turn an annual waste problem into a sustainable solution.