ECO SPEAKS CLE

When Life Gives You Styrofoam™... Recycle with Edgewater Surf

• Guest: Jeff McNaught • Episode 60

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Jeff McNaught owns Edgewater Surf, a surf shop in Rocky River, where he sells a variety of new and used paddleboards, surfboards, and windsurfing gear. The shop also serves as an informal community hub for styrofoam™ recycling. Jeff started this program to provide a local recycling option for the bulky EPS (expanded polystyrene) found inside paddleboards and encasing appliances, TVs, computers, and other large items for customer shipment. This bulky, lightweight, and rigid foam plastic is not accepted in community recycling programs, and the closest recycler is in Dayton, Ohio.

Working to fill a community need, Jeff established an EPS drop-off location at his shop and installed a "densifier" with a Food Service Packaging Association grant. This equipment compacts the foam so it can be cost-effectively transported. With both collection and processing up and running, Jeff is now the only processor of post-consumer foam in the Cleveland area while he is still running his shop and getting out on the lake to windsurf.

Join us to hear Jeff speak about his vision for scaling this program and what he needs to make it sustainable. Jeff also speaks about what surfing is like in Cleveland and the surfing community and his partnerships with organizations like the Surfrider Foundation working to address problems of plastic pollution. Jeff has turned his passions into his business and is all in. We hope our community will support him. 

Resources
Recycling at Edgewater Surf
Shop Edgewater Surf
About Edgewater Surf

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Diane Bickett:

You're listening to EcoSpeak CLE, a podcast for the eco curious in Northeast Ohio. My name is Diane Bickett and my producer is Greg Rotuno. Together we speak with local sustainability leaders and invite you to connect, learn and live with our community and planet in mind. Hello friends and welcome back Greg. While he was off on his honeymoon, I was left to my own devices and did a little solo recording and hiking with the Cleveland Hiking Club. It was super fun, but I'm really glad to have you back behind the soundboard.

Diane Bickett:

Thank you, glad to be back, all right all right sort of Sort of Grease was pretty cool, I'm sure. So it's the end of July here in Cleveland and we're talking about surfing and styrofoam recycling. Now what do those two things have in common? Well, that would be our guest today, jeff McNaught. Jeff owns Edgewater Surf, a surf shop in Rocky River, where he sells his handmade paddle boards, plus other new and used surfing equipment. It's also where Jeff started a community recycling program for styrofoam. Styrofoam is one of the most challenging materials to recycle, but Jeff is all in. Please stay with us and find out why Jeff has taken on this endeavor and what our community can do to help support him and keep this program sustainable. So welcome Jeff.

Jeff McNaught:

Thank you. Thank you for having me and congratulations, thank you.

Diane Bickett:

So can I start with a surfer joke, a really bad surfer joke.

Jeff McNaught:

Please.

Diane Bickett:

Okay, what did the wave say to the surfer?

Jeff McNaught:

I don't know what did it say.

Diane Bickett:

Have a swell time. All right, there's some dads obviously in the surfer community.

Jeff McNaught:

Aging surfers.

Diane Bickett:

So please, let's just start Tell us about your surf shop, which I didn't know existed because, well, I'm an East Sider and I'm not a surfer, but I'm sure there are plenty of people that will be interested in hearing about it.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, you're not the only one that doesn't know it exists. So, yeah, we're tucked away in Rocky River and it started out as doing repairs and some of the builds of boards and got into making paddles and fins out of wood. And then, since I am primarily into windsurfing, I decided I would start selling windsurfing goods as well, because nobody between Buffalo and probably about Ann Arbor sells windsurfing gear. So we have a lot of water but nobody's selling gear.

Diane Bickett:

Interesting, and you're making some of that yourself. You're a woodworker.

Jeff McNaught:

I am, I am yourself. You're a woodworker, I am, I am. I've done furniture for as long as I can remember but then got into making the wooden paddles because I was really interested in that as a craft. And then it branched out into the boards themselves and then that eventually leaked into, linked into, the styrofoam because paddle boards are made with yes and I've never thought about what's inside a paddle board so right, there's our foam.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah right, um, like back in the very early days it was a polyester foam and then, because of a bunch of uh, supply chain issues, eventually expanded. Polystyrene started being used in the probably mid90s and more so into the early 2000s. So a lot of my woodworking I make with sort of upcycled wood stuff from pallets and culled trees from the metro parks and things like that.

Jeff McNaught:

So, I try to avoid using sort of the commercially available woods whenever possible. So when I started making surfboards and paddle boards, I wanted to use recycled foam, because there's plenty of it and that is the primary core material of the boards. And then they are wrapped in fiberglass and epoxy and that gives them their rigidity and strength.

Diane Bickett:

Are you self-taught in terms of putting these together?

Jeff McNaught:

Just me and YouTube. Wow and yeah and just trial and error. There's a lot of boards sitting in the corner that probably won't see the water again. And we'll probably end up in the recycling machine at some point. But yeah, it's a very interesting craft. So it's an ongoing journey and trying. You know, there's an infinite number of different permutations of making a board. That can make it perform different ways, and everybody has a different opinion on what works best. So it'll be a continuing journey.

Diane Bickett:

Wow, so you could recycle your own mistakes.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, I mean yeah, that is yeah, and some of the boards that have been brought in that were beyond repair. If it's feasible and I'm bored at any point, I can rip the skin off of them and either reuse the foam or throw it into the recycling crusher.

Diane Bickett:

Okay, so can we talk terminology real quick. So I started off by talking about styrofoam, and then you mentioned polystyrene and expanded polystyrene, which is the technical terminology. Yes, so styrene, what's expanded polystyrene? How does that differ from styrofoam, what we think of as styrofoam?

Jeff McNaught:

So, they are basically one and the same. I guess I'm supposed to avoid using the from styrofoam what we think of as styrofoam. So they are basically one and the same. I guess I'm supposed to avoid using the word styrofoam because it's trademarked by Dow, or somebody that has a lot more lawyers than I do, but expanded polystyrene is basically in the chasing arrows. Is that what they call the?

Jeff McNaught:

triangle Number six yeah, number six, but it's gone through a process where it's expanded to be over 90% air encapsulated in these sort of bubbles of polystyrene.

Diane Bickett:

Okay.

Jeff McNaught:

But styrofoam and expanded polystyrene are for all intents and purposes the same.

Diane Bickett:

So that's part of the reason why it's difficult to recycle, because it's 90% air. So to ship it anywhere, you're paying to move air.

Jeff McNaught:

Yes.

Diane Bickett:

And to process it and to make it more dense so you can ship. It is what you're doing at your shop, right? So tell us about how you got into this and where you are now.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah. So from trying to garbage, pick as much polystyrene as possible to make boards, um, I started to realize just how much of this stuff is out there. And then you know, garbage day is a is a boon for me, and I drive down the street and there's giant pieces of polystyrene sticking out of everybody's garbage can. Um, so then it, yeah, it started with looking into. You know what is being done about this? Because when you start to look into, well, how do I get rid of it? There's nobody anywhere where you can drop it off. There's one place by Pittsburgh, styro Peck, and then there is a facility close to Dayton and I believe Dublin Ohio also has a program for collection. Dayton and I believe Dublin Ohio also has a program for collection. So, yeah, and then looking to, looking into then, okay, well, nobody's recycling it. But then why? And then it gets into what you were mentioning about how it's all mostly air and it's difficult to transport, because you are transporting 90% air.

Jeff McNaught:

I looked into, well, obviously somebody's recycling it.

Jeff McNaught:

And when you start to read about sort of the chemical makeup itself and what it takes to recycle it, it actually has a very low melting point of around 210 degrees Fahrenheit, which is around boiling water.

Jeff McNaught:

So if you were to hold a piece of this over steam coming out of a kettle, it would essentially melt and turn back into a molasses type substance that you could form into new polystyrene products. So it's really a sort of a low energy thing to recycle. But most municipalities are charged by the weight of their garbage, so polystyrene means nothing to them. But at some point it has to mean something to somebody because you know it gets crushed, essentially when it's at the landfill. But it's also. If you were to crush it and just reuse it, then you essentially never have to make new polystyrene again because there's enough of this around that you could just create a loop of recycling and it's also easier to my mind to recycle it than it is to recycle beverage bottles and cardboard and other things that are easily contaminated, because if you get something in a cardboard box that then has polystyrene in it, that has a television in it, it's not really contaminated with anything, it's perfectly clean and can be put back into the stream.

Diane Bickett:

Right. So in theory anything is recyclable, and polystyrene included, but it just when it comes down to the practicality of a city, including it in a curbside program. You have a 64-gallon cart, you know. Then you've got the really bulky items that your new TV came in. You might have your food delivered. Like what are those food places that deliver food in your you know, green chef or whatever.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, those kind of things.

Diane Bickett:

Yes. Then you have food packaging that's contaminated with you know food residue, which is also problematic, you know like takeout containers and stuff like that. So in my prior career at the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District we did try for a time to collect polystyrene because there were some organizations over the years that were trying to do what you know you're trying to do in a similar fashion. You're trying to do in a similar fashion, but then ran into some of the problems of one, the contamination. Two, the cost of transport. Three, the lack of end market. So who is your end market for the material that you're not using in your boards, that you're trying to ship to an end user?

Jeff McNaught:

trying to ship to an end user. Yeah, there are multiple buyers that will then take the material and do the final processing to turn it into new materials, and EcoDevelopment down close to Dayton, cincinnati area, would be the closest and largest buyer for this market here, so that they will probably be my buyer for materials, and it's just a matter of getting enough material together so that it makes sense for transport to send down to them. So I need to be able to fill up an entire tractor trailer load of densified material, which is at, or over, 30,000 pounds of densified material.

Diane Bickett:

And you have a small shop, I do, I take it you don't have 30,000 pounds laying around.

Jeff McNaught:

Not yet.

Diane Bickett:

When did you start this?

Jeff McNaught:

I have densified 4,500 pounds A little over four pallets of material to date, and the Geauga Solid Waste District was kind enough to take two of those pallets because I could no longer walk through my shop. And now I have two more pallets at my shop so I can once again no longer walk through my shop and am struggling to find that space which will allow me to expand the program and store, you know, store enough so I can get up to 30 and then also collect a few more while the truck is coming, you know, and kind of be able to have that loop, that loop of shipping and receiving yeah, well, I want to get into what your needs are, as I said earlier, to make this program sustainable.

Diane Bickett:

But first let's talk about the densifier. You, on your own, saw a need for styrofoam or polystyrene recycling in this area, and you went and were able to get a grant from somewhere. I can't remember where you said you got a grant from.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, it was from the Food Service Packaging Institute.

Diane Bickett:

Okay.

Jeff McNaught:

And I was not granted the first year I applied, but then the second year I applied I was granted the funds for a densifier.

Diane Bickett:

That's great and explain what the densifier is and does does.

Jeff McNaught:

It looks like a snowblower turned on its end and it has a, an auger similar to what a snowblower has in it which shreds the materials. And then that auger then pushes the materials into a narrowing channel that has a hydraulic press, so all the materials get densified into a continuous log that is seven inches by seven inches and it is extruded out. And then you're, you break it off at whatever length fits on the pallets. So I'm like at 48 inches, I'm trying to break it off. It never breaks at 48 inches and I end up with stuff all over the place. But I try, um, and then you can stack it on a 48 by 40 skid for shipping. Um, yeah, and so it was. The program would not have been possible without that grant, um, because the machines themselves are $40,000 plus and I, the machine I got was on the smaller end of what the company Rooney produces. So I was able to get that and then, with my own funds, had to do upgrading of electrical and get other equipment necessary to make it happen.

Diane Bickett:

Wow, that's a lot to do all on your own, just as a small businessman who just saw the need to fix a problem. So you have a lot of out-of-pocket expense. You have your time. You have time spent away from your core business, which is your surf shop. What's the plan going forward? What would you like to see? I think I remember you saying you want to develop a commercial route to pick up styrofoam from big box stores, to try to expand this on a larger scale.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, with larger institutions like hospitals, doctor's offices, that generate a lot of styrofoam because they get medications and other things in styrofoam and municipalities. If I can create a route that on a consistent basis, I can collect and densify this foam, that my goal would be to get it to a point where it's sustainable financially and sort of splintered off as its own business and hopefully get somebody else to run it at some point. But um, for the time being, yeah, it's. It's up in the air to figure out whether a surf shop in Cleveland or styrofoam recycling is less profitable, but we'll find out in short order.

Diane Bickett:

Well, recycling is a volume basedbased business, so the more you have, the more the financials work, I guess is the way to say it.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, so at least for the time being, being the only person doing it, it has potential. It's certainly scalable almost infinitely.

Diane Bickett:

Yes, let's talk a little bit about your drop-off program. So you're located at 1328 Linda Street is where the Edgewater Surf is located. Yes, and currently you are taking small donations or donations of styrofoam from the public.

Jeff McNaught:

Yes, so I have a collection shed on the north side of the building at 1328 Linda Street, so that people can drop off clean foam items, and it's the rigid foam that we're asking to be dropped off, and we also do accept food packaging, and that includes meat trays, egg cartons and other things, the important thing being that they are, in fact, clean and can be processed.

Diane Bickett:

Does that include egg cartons? Yes yeah, okay.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, okay.

Diane Bickett:

When you say rigid styrofoam as opposed to like the flexible stuff.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, the spongy stuff that bounces back when you squeeze it. I'm still not sure what that is, but I'm not supposed to use it.

Diane Bickett:

No spongy stuff. No spongy stuff, maybe it melts at a different temperature or something like that. So I like how your drop-off bin is in the parking lot. It's got like a grass skirt. It looks very Hawaii.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, we kind of spiced it up for a fundraiser recently for the Surf Rider Foundation, which their cause definitely dovetails with what we're trying to do. So we kind of tiki-ed up the place and had some grass and tiki heads and other things to make it festive.

Diane Bickett:

I like that alliance with the Surfrider Foundation. I noticed on Sunday you had, or they were, doing some type of a bar crawl to raise money for their organization and they met at your shop.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, and about once a month they do a beach cleanup locally at one of the beaches and it rotates and you get 20 or so people out there picking up garbage off of the beach and hopefully making it better than when they came.

Diane Bickett:

Love it. Love it as a surfer. What are you seeing out there? Are you seeing a lot of plastic debris in the water when you're paddling?

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, it is a lot of tiny pieces of the polystyrene foam really is a large, large bit of it. That and the little cigarette.

Greg Rotuno:

Oh, the wood, the plastic tips for black and white.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, right, exactly, those are everywhere yeah.

Greg Rotuno:

If you walk Edgewater Beach, they're just in the sand?

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, everywhere.

Greg Rotuno:

You can't go 10 feet without finding one.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah.

Diane Bickett:

I think that's just kind of a Cleveland thing. The cigarette tips.

Greg Rotuno:

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I've never seen anyone use them, I just see them all over the sand.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, it's pervasive though.

Diane Bickett:

I read today that the Clean Water Alliance put this out, which we interviewed them in episode 21. But anyway, they put something out today that said USA Today just awarded Lake Erie the title of number one lake in the US, touting that it's the most biodiverse of all the Great Lakes. So we have to do a lot to protect it, and certainly creating more recycling opportunities and awareness of plastic pollution is something that surely helps.

Jeff McNaught:

It's the shallowest of the Great Lakes, but it has the greatest biodiversity.

Diane Bickett:

That's what they had in their press release.

Greg Rotuno:

All right.

Diane Bickett:

And it's the most digitally connected lake on the globe. What does that mean?

Greg Rotuno:

All the fish are on Instagram, right Nice.

Jeff McNaught:

All of the different species of creatures.

Diane Bickett:

I'm going to have to go back and re-listen to episode 21, because they put the monitoring stations out around the lake and that's how they help monitor the water quality and everything like that.

Jeff McNaught:

I want to see a hellbender salamander with an iPhone.

Diane Bickett:

So what do you want people to know about surfing in Cleveland? It's not like a big surfing area, I mean it doesn't come to mind immediately, but then you see pictures of people out in the middle of winter in their surfboards and their wetsuits.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, so that's one of the tricks of it is that the weather, energy and the winds necessary to get surfable waves. You're going to get more northerly winds from the weather systems during the winter, the late fall and winter, so there's a fine line between getting that weather and there not being ice chunks in the water, because then you know even if you're craziest you probably don't want to be out there and it is.

Jeff McNaught:

It's just sort of it's a thing that exists, I think, is the first thing to be out there. Um, and it is. It's just sort of it's a thing that exists, I think, is the first thing to let people know. And then, uh, just beyond that, that it's, it's a tight knit community, obviously, because most of the folks that are doing it know each other, because it's not exactly the most popular thing and if, if you see the same dozen people out there every time there's a good swell coming in, then you're going to get to know each other. And and there's also a a pretty vibrant but small community of windsurfers and that's primarily what I do is windsurfing and, uh, and it's a thing and it's and it's a lot of fun. And I think you know the more people that get into things like that, be it it paddle boarding, wind surfing or prone surfing, as they call it then you do get more eyes on the water and it becomes more of a concern, as it becomes something that you want to put your body in.

Diane Bickett:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jeff McNaught:

Like it being clean matters a lot more when it's in your ears, in your mouth all those things. So it hopefully it does increase that awareness and certainly the paddleboarding community has grown substantially over the years and I think that the a lot of the same folks that that are avid paddleboarders are part of that surf rider foundation. So it, you know, it does kind of bring all of that together with the environmental awareness and act, more importantly, environmental action with people out cleaning things up.

Diane Bickett:

Is there a spot you especially like to surf? You go out at Edgewater or Huntington, or do you have a favorite location?

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, for the prone surfing, the Edgewater Park side is the primary area where surfing takes place and then there are, depending on how the winds are going and the swell direction and things like that, huntington is an option and then out in Lorain there's also spots and folks will drive out to Presque Isle in Pennsylvania on a westerly wind in Pennsylvania on a westerly wind, and for me for windsurfing it's Wendy Park, because with the primarily onshore winds, because with any of these sports really, if you get into trouble, if you're windsurfing and something goes wrong, you don't want to have an offshore breeze unless you have Canadian dollars in your pocket.

Jeff McNaught:

So at wendy park you can have these onshore significant winds from the north, but there's also a break wall about a quarter mile out, so the wave action is depleted but the wind continues. So you have a relatively smooth water surface to sail on, but then you have the winds that enable that makes it great for kayaking yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, I see people every now and then when surfing yeah, yeah, there's a, there's a group that goes like every friday and there's yeah, how do you get into that, like, how do you try?

Greg Rotuno:

I always wonder that, because I am a trier of hobbies and like how do you? Decide that, like this, is something I could do well, that was sort of.

Jeff McNaught:

The difficult thing is when I decided that was going to be a thing for me I was like okay so I started looking for equipment.

Jeff McNaught:

So I'm like, well, I'll just get the equipment and figure it out.

Jeff McNaught:

Right, but most of the equipment that you can find on marketplace or anywhere else is usually older late 80s, early 90s slalom gear which is sort of race-oriented very small boards, large sails that are difficult to haul out of the water and unless you're ready to get up on that board and go 15, 20 miles an hour right out of the get-go, they're useless to folks learning. So I ended up having to go to the Outer Banks and then Florida and take lessons there and then also get my equipment there because they're like, okay, you're learning, this is the equipment you need. And I was like, wow, this looks completely different than anything I've seen in Cleveland. So part of my hope is that with the shop that I have now, is that because I can teach lessons for windsurfing, I can give people guidance and then also have used a new equipment to say, okay, this is what you need to get learning and actually have a chance of enjoying yourself instead of just being wildly frustrated and kind of drifting around in anger.

Diane Bickett:

There you go, Greg, your next sport.

Jeff McNaught:

I like anything that is equipment intensive. I just got into fly fishing like two years ago. That's a good one, maybe scuba diving.

Greg Rotuno:

I have said that my next would either be scuba diving or flying, but maybe it's windsurfing.

Jeff McNaught:

I support that choice, or all three, or all three If I know you, it's probably all three. Yes, I need to One for each season.

Diane Bickett:

So tell us about. I want to touch on some more of your community partners and sort of what your ask is for the community to try to keep this going. I understand from the Cleveland Heights Green team that you're working on some type of a collection partnership with them. Are you at liberty to spell that out right now, or is that still too new?

Jeff McNaught:

No, I think it's going to move forward.

Jeff McNaught:

I think it's going to take some form similar to what I've done with Oberlin, in that it would be like a um, a Saturday morning event, where it would be sort of one of those three hour drop off periods like they have for, you know, computers and hazardous goods and things like that Um, to get sort of get the word out there, gauge interest and see what can happen and then from there hopefully create something more permanent where, okay, there can be a permanent collection site and then I go pick up weekly from something like that and I do have discussions going with other groups, some private institutions for that same type of thing where it would be sort of a collection site that they host Hopefully give me some sort of funding to do the collection so that I can pay for the collection portion of it, because the money that is available for the densified materials doesn't even really cover the time and effort that goes into the densification and stacking and all the other things that go on.

Jeff McNaught:

I think I've estimated that you could pay somebody probably about $2.30 an hour and break even, which probably isn't going to be a real quick sell for anybody that's looking for employment, but if you're out there, it's available.

Jeff McNaught:

Anybody that's looking for employment, but if you're out there, it's available. So yeah, getting those sorts of things going and then, at the same time, trying to get support from either local governments or a private institution that has space available that we can use to stage the densified pallets prior to them being collected from the processor.

Diane Bickett:

So a truckload quantity of densified polystyrene, how many pallets do you estimate would fit? 30, 40?

Jeff McNaught:

So yeah, I'm looking to get space for 30 pallets and then room to move around those pallets so that they can be that's not in your shop right, so I estimate that something just sub 1000 square feet would be what is necessary, and hopefully with access to a loading dock, so that the pallets can then be easily wheeled onto a truck and sent on their way.

Diane Bickett:

That's not a terribly large space for someone to consider donating.

Jeff McNaught:

That's what I thought.

Diane Bickett:

Until you start asking right.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, and I've been looking at it ever since this became a thought, and it was like before I got the Densifier, before I started the program. I've been looking and asking, and looking and asking and somewhere in my naivete I thought that would be the easiest thing, because people would look at how amazingly awesome this is and be like wow yeah, we'll give you space.

Jeff McNaught:

You know we've got space over here in our warehouse. And look at this great thing you're doing, and, and, as Rocky river or whatever municipality it happens to be, try to look at the fact that it's offsetting some of their garbage collection.

Diane Bickett:

Yes.

Jeff McNaught:

So this, this is material that they no longer have to deal with, and hopefully it's kind of a symbiotic relationship with somebody, and and so the the search continues for that space. But if anybody does have space available and is willing to offer it, that would be fantastic.

Diane Bickett:

I think it would be really cool if someone listening to this podcast contacted you to make that offer. Meanwhile, there is a fundraising tab on your website where people can make donations to try to help keep this going as well.

Jeff McNaught:

Yes, there is a GoFundMe link that is out there for anyone that wants to offer up a little bit of financial assistance to keep this going until we can get it to a point where it's self-sustaining, hopefully.

Diane Bickett:

Hopefully, yes, hopefully, yes, absolutely.

Jeff McNaught:

It must happen.

Diane Bickett:

Yeah, you have a lot invested. I mean, when did you start this? A couple years ago.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, it was two, two and a half or three years ago that I first started trying to do it, and then a year a little less than a year ago, I took a leave of absence from my job at the time to try and get the program running. I didn't have it up and running by the end of my leave of absence, so I quit my job altogether to focus on that. And here we are so what could possibly go wrong?

Diane Bickett:

Let's help Jeff out to make this sustainability sustainable. That's to make this sustainability. That's my ploy. That's my ploy I like food too, so yeah I might buy some of that you can't just eat peaches from your peach tree.

Jeff McNaught:

No, the program is up and running and uh, any support that can be offered is much appreciated and, at the very least, if you have foam, you can always drop it by on Linda Street.

Diane Bickett:

What are?

Jeff McNaught:

your hours. I am there noon to five pretty much every day, if not earlier, and the foam can be dropped off at any time because the collection shed is out in the parking lot. But if you come by during shop hours, by all means come in and say hello.

Diane Bickett:

Great, and don't overwhelm him with tons and tons of stuff.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, there are folks that have been saving it for a long time and then, when they hear about me, they're like oh great, my entire garage can now be emptied of the foam I've been saving.

Diane Bickett:

Yeah, we know the types, and then there's recycling guidelines too on your website for more information about what types of styrofoam what we mean by- EPS expanded pound styrofoam. I'm going to get a lawsuit. I keep saying styrofoam.

Jeff McNaught:

I know right, Dow is listening and there is also a little placard on the collection site with a reminder of what we're looking for and whatnot, Although it does say on there that we don't collect pool noodles. But I think I'm going to backtrack on that one and say bring pool noodles.

Diane Bickett:

I don't know, they're kind of squishy, I know, but you can use them for other stuff. Okay, yeah.

Jeff McNaught:

Those aren't being recycled. I just want pool noodles because they're fun.

Diane Bickett:

I can see the rabbit hole that got you into this situation?

Greg Rotuno:

Yeah, right Be, I can see the rabbit hole that got you into this situation?

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah right, yeah right. Be careful what you wish for right, oh, my goodness.

Diane Bickett:

Well, I got one final tip for would-be surfers out there is check the beach advisories on the sewer district website before you go out. I noticed that the. Paris Olympics are going on. They had to hold off the triathlons. Was it the triathlons? Anyway, the swimming events in the Seine River, because of E coli, because of all the rains they've been having, so that happens here too.

Jeff McNaught:

Yes, we were just discussing that this morning because a friend of mine was out yesterday and noticed the sign when he got back on shore.

Diane Bickett:

Oh no, Go home fast.

Jeff McNaught:

Yeah, take a really hot shower. Yeah, brush your teeth.

Diane Bickett:

Okay, can I end with one last dad surfing joke? Oh, please, okay. Why do surfers eat cold food?

Jeff McNaught:

I don't know. Because, they hate microwaves. Oh yeah, that took me a minute too, that's good, that's good.

Diane Bickett:

Thanks, that took me a minute too.

Greg Rotuno:

That's good.

Diane Bickett:

Thanks, Jeff, for joining us and for the peaches and everything that you're doing for sustainability. I appreciate it, thank you.

Greg Rotuno:

We hope you've enjoyed this episode of EcoSpeak CLE. You can find our full catalog of episodes on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are available the first and third Tuesday of each month. Please follow EcoSpeak CLE on Facebook and Instagram and become part of the conversation. If you would like to send us feedback and suggestions, or if you'd like to become a sponsor of EcoSpeak CLE, you can email us at hello at EcoSpeakCLEcom. Stay tuned for more important and inspiring stories to come.

People on this episode

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Diane Bickett

Host
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Greg Rotuno

Co-host