Wetsuit recycling program keeps neoprene out of N.S. landfills

It's a first in Canada, a wetsuit recycling program designed to keep material known as neoprene out of the landfills. The thought was we could create employment as well as do something good for the environment. So I'm cutting these into strips. What I do is I stick them through this machine. And we used to do them actually by scissors. The wetsuits are donated here at the ARC, an adult day program that provides employment and services to people with diverse intellectual and physical abilities. They are then cut up and some pieces granulated by this machine to make the material reusable. It actually makes me feel really good because I know that they're being used for something to make different things, like John had said that we make eyeglass. We make cup holders, we make wallets. One wetsuit takes about 100 years to decompose. The ARC estimates about 500 to 1,000 wetsuits could end up in our landfills each year. With just over a year into the program, the ARC has repurposed 400 wetsuits. But kick-starting the program was a bit of a challenge at first. We had to, you know, we had to create some awareness around why people would even bother to recycle their wetsuits or why or how they could actually get them to us. So there's some logistics that took some time. Now those used wetsuits, including matching booties and gloves, can be dropped off at local surf companies. And they are seeing their hard work recognized. The team recently received an Innovator of the Year award. It shows a work that is appreciated. Building on this success, they hope to expand the program to other surf communities across the country. Molly McNaughton, CBC News, Bridgewater.