Boats2Boards

Boats2Boards is a charity project which began in the depths of the pandemic. After a few years of recycling kayak outfitting by modifying cool old-school whitewater kayaks it was hard to ignore that we were still sending the hulls off to the landfill - even though they were marked as #2 recyclable plastic. It was maddening!

To see what we currently have for sale click here:

To date we have raised nearly $13,000 for charities including American Whitewater, Team River Runner, and Whitewater Ontario. We collect donated kayaks from across the east cost and beyond in partnership with the Team River Runner Hand Paddles Project, and keep 99% of the plastic we receive out of the landfill.

Our hard work means that Backyard Boat Shop donated more to American Whitewater than any other Industry Partner retailer in 2022. Click here to see the current Industry Partner List. You can also read more about our origins in the March 2023 AW Journal.

It took a few years of development, but we are now able to recycle all linear HDPE kayaks into heavy-duty, and durable products. We want to make sure that when you buy a product from this project that it will be the last one you ever need. These are recycled products, so while they are 100% functional and beautiful you should expect some minor imperfections and artifacts from the process.

Want to donate your boat? Please reach out to us to arrange transportation. We partner with a few retailers, and many volunteers to move boats to our shop outside Syracuse, New York, and to TRR Handpaddles in Rockville Maryland.

For the latest on what we are up to, and the newest products up for sale you can check out our inventory here at Backyard Boat Shop, and follow the Boats2Boards Facebook Page.

For those worried about the safety of the recycling process, we follow the FDA guidance on the use of recycled plastics which contact food. This dates back over 30 years to 1992 and you can read it for yourself by clicking here.