In France, Notox is using recycled and biobased materials for creating more eco-friendly surfboards. They are using recycled EPS (expanded polystyrene) foam, renewable resources such as flax fibre and cork, and epoxy resins – for the composite – that are part bio-based, according to Youris.com. Conventional surfboards are made with plastics, glass and oil-based resins, but Notox’s founder, Pierre Pomiers, is using flax and cork to improve the sustainability and CO2 footprint of surfboards, though he notes that biobased versions of the foam blanks are not that great in terms of LCA because they aren’t recyclable, which is why he uses recycled EPS instead.
Pomiers told Youris.com that “one of its surfboards produces a kilogramme of waste, 75 per cent of which can be recycled, while more common manufacturing processes result in around six kilogrammes of waste that is hard, if not impossible, to reuse.”