Expanded polystyrene foam, typically used in everything from packaging for new TVs to carry-out food containers, but Jeffrey McNaught, owner of Edgewater Surf in Rocky River, found an eco-friendly use for something that usually ends up in landfills.
McNaught opened his surf shop in September, where he collects donated foam at a hut outside the store.
"Folks can drop it off at any time," he said, "When that fills up every few days, I start bringing it in."
McNaught is also collecting extruded polystyrene foam, typically used for architectural insulation. The larger pieces of foam can be transformed into surfboards that can be used as close by as Lake Erie.
"So I'm using coolers and architectural foam that if we get large enough pieces, we just set those aside," McNaught said. "We glue them up into a stack and then shape a board from that."
The boards start in a "rough shape," according to McNaught, a giant rectangle of glued together pieces of foam. The actual design and features of each board is unique.
"It kind of just depends on what size pieces we get [and] how we think it's gonna come together best," McNaught said. "A form drives function kind of thing."
Afterward, the board is rendered, cut and sanded before being covered in fiberglass and finished. By the time a board is completed, it often ends up with an intricate design created as part of the recycling process, McNaught said.
"The way this board here is stacked, actually once it's shaped out, you'll still be able to see these glue lines, which actually gives it kind of cool aesthetic," McNaught said. "It's very labor intensive, but it kind of makes for a cool looking board."
McNaught sells the recycled foam boards in store alongside other eco-friendly brands including Starboard, POP Board Co. and Severne, he said, but the recycled boards drive up public interest.
"There's just not really many people in this area making boards from scratch, shaping boards, so there's that unique aspect to it," he said. "Then when people learn that it's from recycled foam or upcycled, however you want to look at it, then that's just an added bonus."
Expanding the local foam recycling industry
Not all donated foam is transformed into surfboards in the shop. For smaller pieces of foam, McNaught uses a machine to crush the foam and compress it into long, dense logs of expanded polystyrene foam.
"We take the different grades of foam and alternate kind of lightweight foams and more dense things like coolers. It all mixes together, gets crushed, goes through a hydraulic press and creates a log of densified foam which is now a raw material to be melted down and turned into new EPS foam or polystyrene products."
The logs aren't used in-store, McNaught said. Instead, pallets of the logs are sold to local and international companies.
"There is a company in Dayton, Ohio. ... They're kind of a broker, and then they sell the material off to various companies around the country, and there's also a Chinese buyer, and their focus is on making picture frames," he said. "So, really it's a global supply option, depending on who's buying it, it can go anywhere from here to China."
According to the most recent data available from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, from 2018, 27 million tons of plastic, including EPS foam, ended up in landfills making up nearly 19% of total waste in landfills that year.
EPS foam products generally can not be recycled in Northeast Ohio, according to the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District, because the material "takes up so much space relative to its weight," making it difficult to recycle.
Cuyahoga County residents should not put EPS foam into their curbside recycling bins according to the district.
Since opening, the surf shop has kept more than 4,000 pounds of foam from ending up in landfills, McNaught said.
"It's very clean material. It instantly becomes a raw material for new products," he said. "The benefits ... I view them as being almost endless. There's really no downside to turning this material back into what it already is."
Community members can drop off unused foam anytime at a hut outside the shop.
McNaught will host an open house Friday to demonstrate the process to local officials. The goal, he said, is to partner with cities to establish foam collection days and expand the foam recycling industry in Northeast Ohio.
"That will expand our reach in terms of collection," McNaught said, "and getting a larger warehouse space to process the material, store it, and have it ready for shipment."
