Recycle Your Old Wetsuits With Rip Curl

Rip Curl makes some of the best wetsuits going around; wetsuits which are renowned for their comfort, warmth and durability. The sheer quantity they sell, however, means that there are invariably a whole lot of Rip Curl wetsuits around the world whose surfing days are past them. Historically most of these end up in the bin, but over the past decade or so this iconic brand has been involved in various wetsuit recycling programs around the world. The latest of these has seen them partner with global recycling leader TerraCycle, and this is how it works. 

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What you need to do

As easy as it is to simply chuck your wetsuit in the bin once it’s no longer of use to you, it’s not the most sustainable behaviour. Given the quantity of wetsuits an individual can go through over the course of a lifetime of surfing, the environmental impact can certainly add up. With Rip Curl’s latest wetsuit recycling venture, you can prevent your suit ending up in landfill without having to go to any great lengths.

To give your wetsuit a second life, you have two choices: either drop it off to your nearest selected store, or mail it back to Rip Curl. If the latter is easier for you, simply fill in the form available here – https://www.ripcurl.com/au/explore/recycle-your-wetsuit.html. From there, Rip Curl will send a link to your email through which you can create your free return form. All up it’ll probably take you a couple of minutes.

Whether you’re mailing it or dropping it back to a Rip Curl store, you don’t need to worry about making sure the wetsuit is perfectly clean. They cannot, however, accept wet wetsuits, so make sure it’s dry before you send it back.

What happens next?

Once you’ve sent your wetsuit in, it will be sent off to TerraCycle (more about exactly who they are below). Once it gets there, they’ll crumb it into new raw material and then use that new material for the creation of a variety of things. You know the soft, squishy stuff which sits on the ground at playgrounds so kids aren’t falling on concrete? That’s just one example of where your wetsuit can end up.

Where can you do it? 

Rip Curl’s wetsuit recycling program with TerraCycle hasn’t been rolled out all around the world, but it has been in most of the places where their wetsuits are most popular. At this point in time, the program is available throughout Australia, the USA, France, Portugal and Spain. Our sister store Rip Curl Ulladulla is a collection point.

Who are TerraCycle?

TerraCycle is a recycling company headquartered in New Jersey and which was founded back in 2001. They exist to create recycling solutions to, in their own words, ‘eliminate the idea of waste’. Essentially, they do what they can to keep as much rubbish as possible out of landfill or incarceration, instead using it to create new raw materials and products – exactly what they can do with your old wetsuit.

Rip Curl’s other sustainability initiatives

In an industry which is centred around use of the ocean, Rip Curl’s duty to the environment is something they take pretty seriously. The TerraCycle partnership is one example of how they do just that, but it’s certainly not the only sustainability initiative they partake in.

The wetsuits themselves are increasingly created using more sustainable practices, with Rip Curl now having a range called the Made With Sustainability in Mind wetsuits. The foam used in these suits is 50% plant based and is neoprene free, while they are also certified as 50% Biobased by the United States Department of Agriculture.

They’ve also reduced the amount of water that is used in the creation of their wetsuits. Typically, a whole lot of H20 goes into their production as a result largely of the colouring processes. However, today Rip Curl uses Dope Dying for the bulk of their wetsuits, a process that not only reduces water usage, but also minimises energy and CO2 emissions.

You may also have benefitted from Rip Curl’s repair scheme, which makes it easy for customers to have their wetsuits fixed up. Evidently the best way to reduce waste is to increase durability of products, so making it easy for customers to have their wetsuits repaired rather than having them throw it in the bin is yet another way to improve the sustainability of these products.

Wetsuits aside, Rip Curl also has a program which helps to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean by producing the famous Rip Curl hangers; hangers which are very possibly sitting in your bedroom closet. The Arch and Hook BLUE hanger program collects plastic from a number of rivers around the world from which a lot of plastic flows into the ocean. They then transfer this plastic into new raw material, which they use in the production of the Rip Curl hanger.

Rip Curl has long had a strong focus on sustainability, and they are constantly implementing new ways to not just minimise the impact of their business on the environment, but also to reduce the environmental impact of humans more generally. The TerraCycle wetsuit recycling program is one of the latest such initiatives, and makes it easy for surfers, swimmers, wetsuit enthusiasts – whoever it may be! – to ensure their Rip Curl wetsuit doesn’t end up in landfill. All you need to do is either take it to a participating Rip Curl store or send it off to them, making it easy to give your wetsuit a second life.