Turning plastic waste into park benches

In a healthy, volunteer-run organization, volunteers feel empowered to offer suggestions, and that’s how Twelve Baskets Food Pantry evolved into having a recycling program that turns soft plastic into park benches.

Cardboard has always been recycled at the pantry, but when Barb Ogrin and Georgia Boyle came on board as volunteers at the pantry about four years ago, they independently noticed that a good deal of other recyclable materials were ending up in trash barrels.

Barb got the recycling ball rolling by encouraging other volunteers to give her any metal, glass or plastic bottles they would normally toss in pantry trashcans during their shifts. Barb is a weekly grocery distribution volunteer, when she also collects those recycled items to take home to her curbside bins. “Georgia came up with the bench idea,” said Barb, a 15-year recycler and advocate.

Georgia noticed while volunteering that a lot of soft plastic used to wrap cases and pallets of food was being put in the trash, consuming unnecessary, costly space in the dumpster. She had heard about the NexTrex Recycling Challenge from a friend that’s run by Trex and affiliated with Meijer. The program challenges nonprofit organizations to collect plastic films and packaging (like grocery bags, bread bags, etc.) for recycling. Organizations can earn a raffle opportunity for every 250 pounds collected for a free, four-foot composite bench Trex makes from recycled plastic.

By early May 2024, Georgia had a collection plan in place that was communicated to volunteers, who enthusiastically responded.

“It took us 8 months to collect the first 1,000 pounds, but now that people are more aware it took us just 82 days to collect the second 1,000 pounds,” said Georgia, who also leads the bread-bagging table for weekly grocery distribution and manages the pantry’s volunteer sign up platform.

Georgia and Barb also noticed that some area businesses had plastic to donate. “I saw store workers unwrapping stuff, so I asked, ‘Can I have that plastic?’ and they said yes,” Georgia said. They make weekly stops at H & B Market, Dollar Tree on Westnedge, Town & Country grocery store on Portage St and the Bread of Life food pantry warehouse

Another volunteer, Cheryl Timmons, was recruited to help Georgia with weekly collection of the recyclable plastics from the pantry and the stores. Everything collected is weighed and photographed, according to Trek’s reporting requirements. Meijer chips in by serving as a collection depot for the plastic, which can also be dropped off at Kohl’s, D&W, Fresh Thyme, and Family Fare.

Like any organization, Twelve Baskets can always find ways to improve how we do work and how to lessen our impact on the environment as we help feed our neighbors in need. We are so grateful to this trio of volunteers who helped us implement this program that prevented 3,000 pounds of plastic from making it into a landfill! Our two new benches will be permanently placed on our property later this year. On to the third bench!