AURORA — In one month how many plastic grocery bags, bread bags, Ziploc bags and similar plastic items do you put out to go to the landfill?
If you are looking for a way to recycle these items Aurora Girl Scout Troops 51394 and 10356 has the answer.
Donate it.
To earn their Silver Award, the scouts are participating in the NexTrex Challenge. The challenge requires them to collect a minimum of 500 pounds or 40,500 plastic film items and bags. Once they reach this goal they will earn a Trex bench for the Aurora School.
Trex, the company that sponsors the challenge, manufactures wood-alternative decking products. The products are made from the donated plastics.
“Our hope is to get a bench we can put at our local school,” Preston County Service Unit Leader and Troop Leader Cathy Slaubaugh said. “We’d like to get the whole Service Unit involved so we will be able to put a buddy bench at every school in Preston County — one at a time — starting with our school in Aurora.”
She said if a child feels lonely, he or she will be able to go to the buddy bench as a signal they need someone to talk to or to play with. ”Another child will see them and go and talk to them and include them in their games,” Slaubaugh said.
She said the project is also allowing the Girl Scout troops to gain more recognition in the community.
“They do more than sell cookies,” Slaubaugh said. “They learn skills that help them as they grow. Lots of people don’t recognize there are Girl Scouts in their community.”
Another group that recycles plastic is the Midway Getters 4-H Club.
Club Leader Donna Montgomery said her group has been collecting and recycling plastic bags for 20 years.
She said her son, who lives in Princeton, takes the plastic to be recycled in southern West Virginia. Montgomery said by doing this he was able to get a bench for the Princeton Lions Club.
“Our 4-H club usually recycles 100,000 pieces of plastic per year,” she said. “We were number one with youth conservation for years. Almost everyone in the community saves plastic for us.”
Slaubaugh said her Girl Scout troop is collecting produce bags, store bags, ice bags, Ziploc and other reclosable bags, cereal box liners, case overwrap, bread bags, newspaper sleeves, dry cleaning bags, bubble wrap, plastic wrap from bottled water and plastic e-commerce mailers.
“Anything that has a recycle symbol on it and says wrap will work, even if it’s colored,” she said.
To donate clean plastic to the Aurora Girl Scouts call 304-735-3613. They will pick it up once you have a full garbage bag or more.
TWEET@DominionPostWV
