Styrofoam recycling

My name is Jeff McNaught. I build things out of wood and foam like standup paddleboards and paddles and I am fundraising to start a styrofoam recycling program in Cleveland, Ohio.

I started making surfboards and standup paddleboards a little over a year ago. I wanted to use all post-consumer foam to make things as responsibly as I could. These boards are just a giant block of foam with a thin layer of fiberglass wrapped around it.

In the course of collecting foam from treelawns and a few local flower shops (thank you Cottage of Flowers!) it became obvious that there was way more of this available than I could ever dream to use.

Researching the topic made me realize that styrofoam/expanded polystyrene/EPS/#6 plastic makes up a huge portion of our landfills. That costs money. It is also one of the most recyclable plastics ever created but none of our local municipalities recycle it.

To top it all off styrofoam became part of the supply chain issues of the past few years and prices for block foam have skyrocketed. The blame was placed on no feedstock of resin to make the foam from oversees. And yet every day here in the USA we are throwing away tons and tons of reuseable foam.

I am looking to raise funds to purchase a foam densification unit to process post consumer foam and plastics into blocks of recyclable feedstock that can be sold on the open market.

Funds are also included to rent space for operations, pay to power the machine, collection and handling.

The goal is to have the operation funded for one year.

During this time I will work to create a self sustaining enterprise that can partner with local governments to save taxpayer dollars and landfill space.

Together we can make things like shipping flatscreen televisions and building surfboards less environmentally disastrous.