Groups launch boat shrink wrap recycling pilot program in Chicago

The Council of the Great Lakes Region (CGLR), Ontario, and the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) have launched a shrink wrap recovery pilot program through CGLR’s Circular Great Lakes initiative and AEPW’s U.S. Cities Transformation Flagship initiative. The pilot program aims to recover boat shrink wrap from several marinas in Chicago and Lake County, Illinois.

Several other groups are collaborating on the pilot program, including Charter Next Generation (CNG), the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County (SWALCO), Chicago Harbors, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Lakeshore Recycling Systems (LRS) and Myplas USA.

According to a news release from CGLR, recreational boats used in the Great Lakes must winterize because of the region’s climate, but winterizing these boats requires millions of pounds of plastic film to be used as boat wrap every year in order to protect these vessels. CGLR says most of that film is landfilled every spring. CGLR says it hopes to close the loop for boat shrink wrap film in Chicago and Lake County through this initiative. 

The project will be piloted at Lake County’s Liberty Marina, Munson Marine and Skipper Bud’s as well as at Montrose Harbor in Chicago. Collectively, CGLR says it estimates these marinas serve about 1,300 boats, which equates to about 26,000 pounds of plastic shrink wrap per year.

The pilot program began in April and will run through the end of unwrapping season, which typically is around Memorial Day weekend.

“Planning for this pilot has been in the works since last fall, and meetings are set to continue beyond the collection period to gather information and make improvements for next year,” says Mark Fisher, CEO of CGLR. “The pilot is a chance for all parties to learn and for us to finetune the program, which we plan to have stand up on its own in subsequent years.”

Through the pilot program, shrink-wrap film will be captured at participating marinas with the help of SWALCO and Chicago Harbors. That film will be shipped to LRS’ material recovery facility in Northbrook, Illinois, for consolidation, baling and storage. Those bales will be transported to Myplas USA’s plastic film processing plant in Rogers, Minnesota. CGLR says plastic pellets produced from the film at Myplas will then be shipped to Wisconsin-based Charter Next Generation for the pellets to be tested for reuse as recycled content in other plastic film applications.

“After this season’s pilot proves the concept, we plan to scale boat wrap collection projects across the region," Fisher adds.