On Sunday, June 6, Key Dives will host its annual Wetsuit Wrangle, turning old wetsuits into new yoga mats. Think of it like spring cleaning: Keys edition.
“It is common, especially in the sport of diving, for a diver to own multiple wetsuits or even to go through wetsuits every few years,” said Cortney Benson, Key Dives’ operations manager and marine conservation coordinator. “Dive shops will also go through wetsuits much quicker with high demand in the winter and spring seasons.”
This wouldn’t be as big of a problem if the neoprene that wetsuits are made of was easy to recycle, but it isn’t.
“Because of this, when discarded, wetsuits will typically end up in landfills,” Benson said.
She started the Wetsuit Wrangle a few years ago with a goal to round up all the used and soon-to-be discarded wetsuits and put them to a new use. Once collected, the wetsuits are sent to LavaRubber, a small business that Key Dives partners with that repurposes the would-be trash into everything from yoga mats to coasters to floor mats and more.
In a popular diving destination like the Keys, it’s important to give customers and the community an option for how to properly get rid of their old wetsuits, Benson said.
“As one of the more conservation-oriented dive shops in the Upper Keys, we are stoked to give shops and customers a very easy way to contribute to local conservation,” she said. “It’s very difficult to recycle or repurpose much of the gear involved in scuba diving … so, where we can repurpose a piece of gear rather than send it to the dump, we are all for it.”
The wrangle’s all-time record number of suits collected is 206. Before the event started, they’d already collected around 80 suits from locals and other dive shops. Benson will be driving around to other dive businesses the week of the event to collect their old suits.
If you have an old suit (or two or three) you’d like to contribute, bring them to Florida Keys Brewing Co. in Islamorada on Sunday, June 6 from 3 to 7 p.m.
Each wetsuit you bring in earns you a ticket for a free beer and entry into the raffle for environmentally-conscious prizes like a SandCloud towel, Lava Rubber yoga mat, Stream2Sea products, WanderLust Hats and Broo Shampoo. Key Dives will also have reusable water bottles, hats and lots of other goodies on hand.
