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If you aren’t familiar with hockey or the sticks that players use to compete in games, you might be surprised to hear that they break quite often, particularly at higher levels of competitive play when they are being pushed to the limit.
Unfortunately, despite their somewhat frequent tendency to break, most high-end hockey sticks these days are made with a compact carbon-fibre material, which means that they cannot be recycled.
Courtesy of Washington Capitals & Rink2Reef
As a result, broken hockey sticks are often destined to be trashed and to sit in a landfill; however, a new project local to the Chesapeake Bay, called Rink2Reef, has found a way to convert broken sticks into manmade stackable oyster reefs!
These manmade reefs, constructed from the broken hockey sticks, serve as a structure where oyster larvae can attach and grow as many as 400 adult oysters.
As the oyster larvae grow, each oyster can filter dozens of gallons of water each day, resulting in a cleaner local maritime ecosystem where all local organisms thrive!
ButtermilkgirlVirginia / Shutterstock How the Washington Capitals are saving the ocean with Rink2Reef
Aside from partnerships with major hockey brands like Bauer, the Rink2Reef project has a partnership with the Monument Sports & Entertainment Foundation, which is the foundation of the company that owns the Washington Capitals.
As a result of this partnership, the Capitals donate all broken sticks to the project, ensuring that the ongoing restoration efforts for the Chesapeake Bay’s ecosystem continue!
Geoffrey Prior / Shutterstock How can you get involved with Rink2Reef?
Washingtonians have several ways to get involved and support the Rink2Reef project!
Here are a few ways you can help the project:
Donate your broken hockey stick(s) Purchase a manmade restoration reef to place in the water by your home or dock Individual reefs can be purchased for $175, with funds going back into the project to support ongoing restoration programs. Purchase some Rink2Reef merch from the ‘Swag Shop‘ With funds from merch sales going right back into restoration programs, it’s an easy way to support the project.