Waste To Waves

This past Saturday, January 14th, Waste to Waves set up shop at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA.  There was a steady flow of people and businesses coming every 15-30 minutes to drop off their waste polystyrene foam. Most people were really happy to have a way to recycle waste foam. A number of surfers also stopped by our booth (drawn like flies to honey) and they were impressed that waste EPS foam can be repurposed into [...]

The 7th Grade science class at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School collected a huge pile of EPS foam over the holidays. The kids put out this notice in the school newspaper. See for yourself the results. They filled up the Marko Foam van! The kids are submitting to the Quiksilver Science Challenge, and this was their community service project required for submission.  Look how much foam they kept out of our landfills and oceans.  They are now in the process of [...]

If you haven’t been to the Aquarium of the Pacific yet, here’s a great opportunity. It’s a world class aquarium. My favorite exhibits are the pelagic birds, the large tidal wave simulator tank, and of course the sea lion show and tank. It’s quite fun to walk through sea lion tank tunnel and watch them watching you while they swim circles around you. Don’t forget, foam donors will get a 20% discount on any purchases at the Aquarium Gift Store. [...]

Mike Losness has finished painting the raffle board.  The pictures speak for themselves. We are stoked on the endangered sea turtle design. Keep your trash out of the ocean and away from the turtles… unless you turn it into a surfboard first! This board will be made from: Recycled EPS blank from Marko Foam with a bamboo stringer Super Sap epoxy resin from Entropy Resin (bio-based resin with 30% biological content) FCS Greenflex fins made from recycled carpet fibers Vented [...]

The beauty of the Waste to Waves program is that the foam collection occurs on the “back end” of a normal business. Marko Foam drives all over Southern California delivering its surfboard blanks to shapers and builders.  On the return trip home, they can fill up the empty van with waste EPS foam collected at surf shops.Thus the cost of shipping foam is already paid for by sales of a different product. Why is this important?  Because it’s actually very [...]