Cleanups have been slow and difficult

Recovering tires from the Osborne Reef and surrounding areas is a slow, arduous, expensive, and resource-intensive process. Despite the enormous progress made by professional companies and even the U.S.military, the difficult nature of the work combined with extra challenges like budget cuts, limited resources, and poor weather conditions mean there is still a lot of work to be done to clean up the Osborne Reef.

What makes cleanup efforts even more complicated is the fact that hundreds of thousands of loose tires have already migrated far away from the main cleanup area and must also be recovered, often just a few at a time, in order to prevent more damage to crucial marine ecosystems along the coast.

Safe dives are always our #1 priority

Each tire recovered by our dive crew weighs about 40 to 50 pounds and must be wrestled out of the sand and threaded onto a 6-foot coated metal cable attached to a lift bag. One lift bag can bring about three tires to the surface at a time. Our deckhands then have to haul the lift bag, cable, and tires, which together weigh about 150 pounds, out of the water and onto our barge.

This is tough manual labor even under the best conditions when seas are flat and steady. Our crew is experienced and can work through challenges like poor visibility, tide changes, low water temperatures, and even 2-foot seas. However, we won’t conduct a dive mission if swells are over two feet because it creates unsafe working conditions.

In Florida, winter conditions tend to create larger swells that make it difficult to dive regularly but they improve significantly in early Spring. That’s why our crews monitor weather, wind, and swell forecasts daily and are always ready to get back in the water the very next day that conditions and crew availability allow.

While inclement weather is impossible to avoid, Osborne Reef operations don’t stop just because we can’t get in the water. When we’re not actively recovering tires from our dive site, our crews are:

* Prepping gear and dialing in on our diving kits

*Cleaning and conducting preventative maintenance on all lift bags and dive gear (e.g., refilling dive tanks with gas)

*Staying current on diver training and safety protocols

*Prepping and maintaining our work vessels so they’re ready to go at a moment’s notice

*Cleaning and processing recovered tires for product development and/or disposal

*Raising awareness about this historic cleanup and securing funding that will allow us to expand the operation

*Exploring partnership opportunities that will help us maximize our impact

What happens to the tires we recover from Osborne Reef

The condition of the tires we’re recovering makes them extremely difficult to recycle using the equipment we currently have. Some recovered tires are shredded into the crumb used in the production of our Osborne Reef Jewelry Collection.

Tires that can’t be recycled are brought to the Solid Waste Authority (SWA) in West Palm Beach, Florida. The SWA is one of the most advanced, efficient, and lowest-emission waste management facilities in the U.S.. There, waste tires are converted into energy that powers thousands of homes and businesses in our local community.

Ultimately, our goal is to partner with an organization that can help us recycle these scrap tires on a massive scale so we can use more of this material in more products we can use to fund this historic cleanup operation and advance our mission to end the ocean plastic crisis.