Submitted by Kim Diamond
Berkeley Heights residents are proving that they are “all in” when it comes to recycling thin film plastics. Only six weeks after beginning the Trex Thin Film Plastics Challenge on June 2, 2018, the Berkeley Heights community has amassed over 350 pounds of plastic grocery bags, cereal bags, Ziploc and similar sandwich bags, bubble wrap, dry cleaning wrap, and other thin film plastic items.
Trex, a Virginia-based company that builds outdoor furniture, decking, and other eco-friendly products, is sponsoring the Challenge, repurposing the thin film plastics collected and creating outdoor benches from them. For the Challenge, Trex will donate an outdoor bench to groups that collect 500 pounds or more of thin film plastics in a 6-month period. Berkeley Heights is well on its way to meeting this goal, several months ahead of schedule.
The Berkeley Heights Environmental Commission (BHEC), the group spearheading the Challenge in Berkeley Heights, encourages the entire Berkeley Heights community to participate in the Challenge and applauds its current participation level. They have placed collection bins for the Challenge (Trex Bins) in the following public venues around town:
- Library – Location: Locust Avenue, next to Little Flower Church; bin is next to entrance
- YMCA – Location: Springfield Avenue, next to the train station; bin is located just past and opposite the front desk;
- Police Station – Location: Corner of Park Avenue and Plainfield Avenue; bin is next to doorway
- Pet Supplies Plus – Location: Springfield Avenue in Berkeley Shopping Center; bin is behind cash registers, by the exit
- Columbia Middle School – Location: Plainfield Avenue; bin is in the vestibule by the main office
- Governor Livingston High School – Location: Watchung Boulevard; bin is in the vestibule by the main office
Residents have been participating with vigor, often causing the more “popular” Trex Bins to overflow regularly. Currently, the library is the most popular drop off destination, with the YMCA running a close second.
From an educational perspective, Trex Bins are both raising awareness of the thin film plastics recycling issue, as well as increasing summer book readership. According to Library Director Stephanie Bakos, there has been a surge in the number of people calling the library to get directions to and visit its new location as a result of the library’s Trex Bin. When asked about the Trex Bin overflow the library regularly experiences, Bakos stated, “We’re pleased to help – bring it on!”
The timing for the Trex Challenge is ideal, given the new changes Union County has recently implemented that no longer allows for plastic bags or other thin film plastics to be placed in residents’ curbside recycling containers.
Local businesses are also supporting the Berkeley Heights community during the Challenge. Lifetime Fitness and Stop and Shop are each collecting and contributing their thin film plastics to the cause.
Since June 2, 2018, BHEC members and volunteers from the community have played an instrumental role in the thin film plastics supply chain to Trex. After gathering the thin film plastics from the Trex Bins, BHEC members weigh each bin’s contents, catalogue their findings, and shuttle these plastics to the ACME grocery store in New Providence. From there, the thin film plastics are shipped to ACME’s distribution center, where they are assembled in bales. The bales are then loaded on a tractor trailer and driven to Trex.
The Challenge plays an important role in environmental stewardship and preservation. According to the Ocean Conservancy, approximately 275 million metric tons of plastic waste is currently in our oceans, with 8 million metric tons of plastic waste being added to the oceans annually – the equivalent of having a garbage truck filled entirely with plastics dump its contents into the ocean every minute, every day for one full year. Often, animals, such as turtles, mistake plastics for food, eat the plastics, and suffer life-threatening consequences as a result.
Waste management and collection strategies that promote a circular economy through re-use and re-manufacturing of plastics can help to reduce this rate of ocean pollution and promote safer environments for wildlife in our streams, rivers, and oceans. Residents’ participation in the Trex Challenge is helping to make this a reality.
For an update regarding the current number of pounds collected in the Trex Challenge, as well as other information, please visit the Facebook page: BerkeleyHeightsEnvironmentalCommission
For more information about the Trex Challenge, please visit: trex.com/recycling/recycling-programs/.
(above) The “plastics bonanza” at the library’s Trex Bin, where the majority of thin plastic has been collected to date.
(above) A list of acceptable items to contribute to the Thin Film Plastics Bonanza.
