Pete Saari, who co-founded Mervin Manufacturing more than 25 years ago with Mike Olson, says that up until recently, people were often surprised by the company’s strong environmental policies; policies that have been in place since Mervin’s inception.
For more than two decades, they’ve been committed to using earth-friendly materials including the least toxic epoxies available, citrus-based cleaners instead of nasty solvents, and sustainably farmed woods for the cores. Most of their operations are powered by bio-diesel and green power too.
But one thing that sets Mervin apart is that they recycle all of their extra base material. Huh? Doesn’t every snowboard company recycle the extra plastic? No. They can’t.
“Think of it like making cookies,†says Norm Nelson, the art and marketing production manager for Mervin Manufacturing who also heads up the environmental division of the company. “Base material comes in rectangles. When you cut out the shape of the board, all that extra material around the outside is left over. “
Most snowboard bases are made from some kind of recyclable high density polyethylene plastic . But usually you can’t recycle or re-use it because the plastic already has the graphics silkscreened onto it, usually using a toxic epoxy paint that can’t be recycled.
Mervin uses earth-friendly, water-based inks and a process called dye sublimation where the ink actually goes into the molecules of the plastic. The plastic ends up dyed like your clothes, rather than painted on. Because the ink is water-based, the plastic can still be recycled.
At Mervin, that means about eight dumpsters full of plastic and other waste, or 5-7 tons, that gets recycled instead of ending up in the landfill.
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