Boat Shrink Wrap Recycling Program

In 2024, WHOI Sea Grant again partnered with Barnstable County and the towns of Bourne, Chatham, Eastham, Falmouth and Wellfleet to collect and recycle 46 tons of shrink wrap.  The costs for transporting the material to the MRF and the tipping fees were paid for by the five participating towns. A special thank you goes out to them for their staff time and their willingness to cover the costs.
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In 2023, WHOI Sea Grant again partnered with Barnstable County and the towns of Bourne, Chatham, Dennis, Eastham, Falmouth and Wellfleet to collect and recycle 22 tons of shrink wrap.  The costs for transporting the material to the MRF and the tipping fees were paid for by the six participating towns. A special thank you goes out to them for their staff time and their willingness to cover the costs.

In 2022, WHOI Sea Grant again partnered with Barnstable County and the towns of Bourne, Chatham, Dennis, Eastham and Wellfleet to collect and recycle 5.5 tons of shrink wrap.  Thanks to a group of AmeriCorps volunteers who carefully went through all the wrap to remove contamination in the form of plastic ties, plastic vents, zipper doors, and ropes, we had the cleanest collection we've ever had. We worked with a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) operated by Republic Services, who baled the wrap and sold it on the commodities market. The costs for transporting the material to the MRF and the tipping fees were paid for by the six participating towns. A special thank you goes out to them for their staff time and their willingness to cover the costs.

In the spring of 2021, Woods Hole Sea Grant partnered with Barnstable County, the towns of Bourne, Eastham, Chatham, Dennis, and Wellfleet, and MacDougalls Boatyard in Falmouth to conduct a free shrink wrap recycling program.  Together we recycled approximately 15 - 20,000 lbs of boat shrink wrap.

The program received hands-on support from a summer student fellow from UMass Amherst, who presented a summary of her internship in August.

» See presentation

In 2020, Woods Hole Sea Grant and its partners at Cape Cod Cooperative Extension reluctantly made the decision to cancel the 2020 boat shrink wrap recycling collection due to the uncertainties around the COVID virus and an abundance of caution for the public and our volunteers at the recycling collection points.

In 2020 we conducted a shrink wrap use and alternatives survey among Massachusetts boat owners, marinas and boat yards. Funded by the national Sea Grant program and the NOAA Marine Debris program, the survey results will be posted in 2021.

In 2019, together, we recycled  3.6 tons of plastic shrink wrap. Woods Hole Sea Grant is grateful to the towns of Bourne, Dennis and Eastham for hosting our containers at their transfer stations, to Covanta for sponsoring our Public Service Announcement and “how-to” video, and to AmericCorps and our other volunteers for their help ensuring the shrink wrap was clean and properly bundled for recycling.

In 2018, Woods Hole Sea Grant shrink wrap recycling effort collected shrink wrap from approximately 90 boats at a single container based on the WHOI Quissett Campus.