A prototype is a preliminary model of something. Projects that offer physical products need to show backers documentation of a working prototype. This gallery features photos, videos, and other visual documentation that will give backers a sense of what’s been accomplished so far and what’s left to do. Though the development process can vary for each project, these are the stages we typically see:

We are one of the leaders in sustainable surfboard and stand up paddleboard (SUP) manufacturing. Now we need your help to step it up for our planet! The goal is to become the world’s first Zero Waste Surfboard and SUP production facility. With your support you will become a part of a movement that has and will change the surf industry. We want to incorporate a production waste breakdown system using an industrial shredder, particle reducer, and a vacuum infusion system that will ensure that all of our trash will be upcycled in to useable product such as fins, bodysurfing handplanes, and other products yet to be discovered.

Green Lines Trailer Fins

Recycled Agave Handplane

Custom Shortboard in BasalTech Construction

The Sidecut Fish w custom Resin Tint/Veneer Deck/Glass on Keels

We will utilize the Torrance, CA location to create this blueprint for surfboard and other manufacturing facilities that find the desire to do more for the planet. There are hundreds if not thousands of surfboard glass shops globally and we want to spread the movement towards sustainability. Hundreds of thousands of surfboards and paddleboards end up in landfills each year and if nothing is done this will continue! So lets help Mother Nature out and give her the respect she deserves!

Broken Boards in the dumpster.

Our motivation has always been to take the concept of the high performance eco board to new heights in performance and sustainability. This proven concept, tested by surfers all over the world, has been accepted by the surfing industry and now we are progressing to the next step…

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How we get there: Traditional Surfboard Manufacturing facilities (glass shops) pump out hundreds to thousands of surfboards a year. While we utilize mother nature for our sport, our boards of choice are made with toxic materials to both the environment and those involved in the board building process. An extreme amount of waste that can’t be recycled is produced during the manufacturing process of surfboards and SUPs.

Different types of Surfboard Production Waste

Typical Glassing Room Trash

At Earth Technologies we do things differently. We use the most sustainable materials possible throughout the board building process. Through simple day to day recycling we have reduced our waste streams by 30% when compared to typical glass shops. The goal has always been to reduce our carbon footprint and recycle as much as possible. We are close to zero waste manufacturing but close just isn’t good enough! To raise the bar and become the first zero waste factory we ask for your support to help us implement three new systems simultaneously into production:

1. The Living Earth Systems...we send our fine particulate waste (shaping dust and wood scrap-stringer waste and veneer off cuts) to a farm where meal worms eat the waste and the excrement by-product is organic soil! Just this new system in place alone reduces our waste by 30%

2. Turning our Shop waste into a usable product! We seperate and categorize all of our production waste and trash (excess resin, resinated fiberglass scrap, gloves, resin containers, stir sticks, resinated tape and sanding dust). It then goes into a three step operation: shredding, finer particle separation and then densification through the use of a vacuum infusion system. In order to scale this operation up we need more key components for the infusion system. Once our trash is separated into small enough particulates it goes into molds for products. It then gets infused with bio-based epoxy (the same magic stuff we use on all of our boards!). From these molds we are literally turning our excess production waste and trash into functional products that can be used in the water: from surfboard fins to handplanes. As we scale up the operation the possibilities are endless: foils (foil boards), wooden stringer replacement composites, key chains, and other usable products.

3. Board recycling/board deposit program. This is another surf industry first! You know how in certain states you can return your plastic bottles and cans and get your bottle deposit back?! We’re gonna do the same with boards! Customers bring their old epoxy board (traditional poly boards can not be recycled!) in for recycling so we can dispose of it, instead of it ending up in the landfill where it will not biodegrade. We several options to recycle it. Boards brought for recycling get stripped of their fiberglass shell and then either get shaped down into a new smaller board, turned into Handplanes (miniature surfboards with hand straps for body surfing) or just plain old food for the meal worms in The Living Earth Systems. The customer is then given a store credit for disposing of the board properly. “Get credits for your trash.”

The money raised by this campaign will be used to purchase the following equipment needed to get us to Zero Waste:

Industrial shredder plus wiring/electrical

Particle reducer

Various key components for the Vacuum Infusion system (Vacuum pumps, resin traps, hoses, valves, release materials, etc.)

Where are we at now???

Currently we've categorized all of our waste streams and are no longer sending any more trash out! We've already implemented the Living Earth Systems. Next up, Ryan will be dialing in the infusion system and finalizing production prototypes for the upcycled Agave handplanes.