Shrink wrap. A bit of a pet peeve. How many of us pride ourselves with leaving a clean wake? Or recycle religiously at home? Or minimize our energy
consumption? And yet when it comes to the acres of shrink wrap removed from boats each spring, we just let it go into the dumpster.
Some
engineer among us could probably figure out how many plastic bottles could be made from the shrink wrap of an average
boat, but I betcha its more than a household could recycle in a year.
And there are reasonable alternatives:
1. Dr. Shrink sells a
shipping prepaid bag for fifty bucks so you can recycle it with them. Yes, this might buy you a nice lunch but consider how much we spend on our boats each year.
2. Use your cover over again. If you cut it away carefully, you can get at least two winters out of a cover and my friend sometimes gets three. Sure you have to be gentle re-shrinking it and may have to do a little patching.
3. Buy a
canvas cover. These are pricey upfront but if you are paying a yard to shrink your
boat, you will recoup your investment in a few years. And if you get a full cover, it will protect your fancy awlgrip
paint better than shrink wrap. Our
canvas cover has lasted 20 years in
New England winters with minimal
repairs. And it adds to the resale value of your boat.
Please think twice about keeping this plastic disaster out of our landfills.