Recycle Your Old Wetsuits

Over the years, many subscribers have asked us how to recycle their old wetsuits. After all, neoprene is not rubber. It's not biodegradable or compostable.

It's a synthetic rubber material formally called polychloroprene, with a landfill life of hundreds of years.

Unfortunately, the only guidance we've answered was that all they could do was trash them. There was no commercial recycling.

Now comes Lava Rubber (www.lavarubber.com), a forward-thinking company specializing in recycling and transforming materials like old wetsuits into innovative and eco-friendly items like slippers, coasters, and yoga mats. It's joined with Diveheart, a nonprofit organization that provides scuba diving opportunities for people with disabilities, and Scuba.com's two retail outlets (Costa Mesa, CA, and New York City) to collect and recycle unwanted wetsuits.

Scuba.com is conducting a promotion with the Beneath the Sea scuba show in Secaucus, New Jersey, March 22-24, a third opportunity to drop off old neoprene.

Spend a few bucks - it's worth it given all the enjoyment you've had on pristine reefs - and send your clean, obsolete wetsuit or drysuit to Lava Rubber, Attn: Upcycle, 151 Industrial Way E #A1, Eatontown, NJ 07724.

PS: Why not ask your local dive shop to collect old neoprene and send it on for recycling? They might balk at the cost, but would not we environmentally conscious divers be happy to pay our shops a few bucks to rid ourselves of the guilt for dumping our neoprene into a landfill?