Over one million snowboards have been produced every year since 1995. Most of them end up in landfill when they are done — bindings off, cracked, delaminated, core shot beyond repair. Jones Snowboards built a program to fix that. Twelve Board Store is their drop-off centre in Melbourne.
If you have a dead snowboard sitting in a garage or shed taking up space, bring it in. We will take it from there.
What Is the Jones Re-Up Program?
Re-Up Tech is the world's first snowboard recycling program — developed by Jones Snowboards in partnership with SWS Board Technology, the factory that builds Jones boards. The name stands for Recycle and Upcycle: dead snowboards are collected, processed and turned into performance materials used in new boards.
The key thing that makes Re-Up different from other recycling efforts: the materials from old boards are not just disposed of responsibly, they are upcycled into functional, performance-enhancing components in new Jones snowboards. The recycled material becomes stringer material in new board cores — and in testing, Re-Up Tech stringers have proven to absorb vibrations and be more torsionally stable than any stringer material Jones has ever tested.
The first board built with Re-Up Tech was the Jones Hovercraft 2.0. One thousand boards — from warranty returns, factory thirds and rider donations — went into making that run.
What Boards Can Be Recycled?
Any snowboard. Any brand, any model, any year. The board just needs to have a wood core and ideally not be snapped in half. Jones can work with boards from Burton, YES., Lib Tech, Salomon, K2, Ride, Nitro, Rome — anything.
The board does not need to be a Jones board. The program accepts any dead board from any rider who wants to keep it out of landfill.
How the Recycling Process Works
Once boards are collected at our Richmond store, they are batch-shipped to the Jones factory using slow ocean freight — the lowest carbon footprint shipping method available. The recycling process at the factory involves four stages:
- Metal edges and inserts are removed and recycled separately
- The topsheet and base are lightly sanded to remove wax, dirt and solvents
- Six boards are stacked, glued and pressed together to create a 24-layer sandwich of snowboard materials — six layers each of p-tex base, wood core, stringer material and topsheet
- The sandwich is sliced into thin strips that are inserted as performance stringers into new wood cores
Up to 95% of each donated board is upcycled through this process. The remaining 5% is small offcuts and scraps from processing.
What Do You Get for Your Old Board?
When you drop off a dead snowboard — any brand — Jones will send you a $50 credit towards the purchase of a new Jones board on their webstore. The recycling is completely free.
If your board is a used but still-rideable Jones board, the program also offers a resale credit of $75 to $700 depending on the model and condition — Jones will tune it and sell it to another rider, keeping it on the mountain until it is genuinely done.
One credit per board. Credits apply toward any board on the Jones webstore.
Why This Matters
Jones completed a full Life Cycle Assessment of their snowboards in 2020. The LCA showed that throwing a dead board in landfill or incinerating it — as is common practice in Europe — had a significant impact on a snowboard's overall carbon footprint. Re-Up directly addresses the end-of-life problem that the entire snowboard industry has had since boards started being made at scale.
Jeremy Jones, the brand's founder, has described Re-Up as the most meaningful sustainability accomplishment Jones has ever made. That is a statement worth taking seriously from a brand that has been investing in sustainable snowboard production for over a decade.
How to Drop Off Your Board at Twelve Board Store
Bring your dead board into our Richmond store. It does not need to be in a bag or a case. It just needs to be a complete board — not snapped in half — with a wood core.
We will take your details, log the board into the Re-Up collection, and Jones will send your credit to your email once the board is received and processed at the factory.
Address: 435A Bridge Road, Richmond VIC 3121
Phone: 03 9421 2293
Hours: Seven days — check our Google listing for current hours.
No appointment needed. Walk in, drop it off, done.
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