Volunteers Recycle 8,700 Pounds of Boat Wrap in Wayne County

Every spring around Lake Wallenpaupack, hundreds of boats shed their winter coats of blue plastic shrink wrap, creating mountains of material that used to end up in landfills. Thanks to a new volunteer effort, that plastic is getting a second life instead.

The Wallenpaupack Watershed Warriors launched a recycling program this spring to collect boat shrink wrap from marinas across Wayne County. Working with six marinas so far, the volunteers haul bundles of used wrap into compactor trucks bound for recycling rather than the dump.

"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. "Plastics are particularly harmful because they degrade into what are called microplastics."

The scale of the problem is bigger than most people realize. At 1st Klas Marina in Tafton alone, owner Tom Mueller prepares nearly 500 boats each season. That process takes about eight weeks and leaves behind piles of protective wrap that once had nowhere to go but the trash.

Now the volunteers partner with a company called Ultra-Poly to give the plastic new purpose. The collected wraps get transformed into pellets that manufacturers use to create everyday products like garbage cans and other household items.

"We're extending the life of this plastic," said Todd Schreck, business development manager for Ultra-Poly. Each individual boat wrap weighs between 8 and 10 pounds.

The Ripple Effect

Since April, the Warriors have collected more than 8,700 pounds of shrink wrap. That's the equivalent of keeping 728,000 grocery bags out of the landfill and the lake's watershed.

The program picks up wrap from participating marinas every couple of weeks during the busy spring preparation season. Mueller said the new system works smoothly and makes a real difference for the environment his business depends on.

The volunteers are already looking to expand. They hope more marinas around the lake will join the recycling effort, multiplying the impact with each new partner who signs on.

What started as a local environmental concern is turning into a model for how communities can tackle waste problems with practical solutions that work for both businesses and nature.