The Rotary Club of Buckhannon-Upshur has added more donation locations for its soft plastics recycling project.
Club member Keith Buchanan updated the Buckhannon-Upshur Chamber of Commerce on the project and how Rotary has worked with other community entities.
“The big thing is, there are 1,000s of tons of soft plastic being dumped in our landfills in Upshur County every month — not every year, every month. What are you going to do about it?” Buchanan said. “What if there was a way to recycle it efficiently every month? What if somebody wanted this stuff, wanted to pay for it? Trex makes outdoor decking out of recyclable material — it doesn’t rot and it lasts a long time — so they are willing to pay 14 cents a pound for soft plastics.”
Soft plastics include plastic shopping bags, bread bags, produce bags, ice bags from the pantry, Ziploc and other re-closable storage bags, cereal box liners, case overwrap from products like bottled water and paper towels, plastic e-commerce mailers, bubble wrap, dry-cleaning bags, and newspaper sleeves.
“Rotary has created a way to fund balers, which compress plastic, so that when it’s picked up, somebody is going to pay us, and then it turns into the funds for inclusive playground equipment,” Buchanan said. “By inclusive, I mean playground equipment that some kids have never been able to use before, but now they can. This equipment is designed for them, and it’s made with recycled materials, so it lasts a long time, and when the city has to replace playground equipment, it’s a lot more efficient.”
Plastics must be clean, dry and free of food or organic residue before drop-off.
“This all started because Rotary got a grant. We had some sponsors in the early days — Wendling’s had a small baler, Rotary purchased it and gave it to Weyerhaeuser,” Buchanan said. “They have already been baling for a couple of weeks, and they’re getting something like 300 pounds a week — about 1,000 pounds a month, which is about six tons. This is just for starters.”
The Rotary club has established six places where people can donate their soft plastic, including Coldwell Banker, Kelly Tierney State Farm, the Upshur County Parish House, Chapel Hill Church, Mountain CAP and St. Joseph’s Hospital.
“Our business partners include Weyerhaeuser and Wendling’s, which is currently baling something like 900 pounds a week, and they’re giving us about half of that — but it’s already baled and compressed,” Buchanan said. “The city is going to come over and pick it up. The middleman, called Grassroots, gives the container to the city, and they come and pick it up when it’s full. We don’t have to truck it anywhere .It’s simple — not a lot of players. The more simple you make it, the easier it is to sustain and the lower the cost.”
The City of Buckhannon is scheduled to receive its own baler to start recycling soft plastics at its transfer station as well.
“The baler is scheduled to arrive Feb. 3. We’ve already wired its location, the location is ready, we’re simply waiting on the delivery and installation from the provider, and we’re ready to go,” city recorder Randy Sanders said. “We have people trained. We’ve used that kind of equipment on a regular basis already, so everything should be ready.”
Buchanan also said Rotary can install new donation locations when they are requested.
“Anyone interested in hosting a drop-off location can go to the Rotary website. You could call me — we have a pretty small network, but we can get one of these to you,” Buchanan said. “We have about three more coming. West Virginia Wesleyan is going to have one. We’re trying to gradually build this out. We want to get it right, to keep it simple, but as it works and we simplify it, we’ll add locations. Stay tuned — as this really gets rocking, we’ll let you know.”
