Stonington looks to reduce waste even more with plastic film recycling challenge

Stonington ― Buoyed by the initial success of the food waste recycling program, which has recycled 52 tons of food waste since January, Solid Waste Director Jill Senior wants to challenge residents to reduce waste and the number of yellow bags they use even further by recycling plastic film.

The program, expected to start May 15, is part of a community challenge that seeks to get residents to recycle the thin plastic that normally go into the trash, and rewards communities that meet their goals.

The thin plastic found in bread bags, produce bags, dry cleaning bags and case overwraps that are found on products such as cases of water bottles, cannot be recycled through normal recycling streams due to its tendency to get tangled in the equipment and damage it.

Senior said it took extensive research to find a company that would recycle the material, as most plastic film recyclers would have required the town to purchase special equipment to bale the plastic and trucks to transport it.

"It took a little bit of doing to get somebody, because they do plastic film recycling in some places, but it's such a major undertaking," she said.

She found a program, run by NexTrex, a subsidiary of composite decking manufacturer Trex, that would have no cost and could even earn prizes for the town.

The program challenges the town to collect 500 pounds of plastic film in six months, which Senior said is approximately 40,500 bags.

"The initial reaction from this has been overwhelming. People are calling and saying, ‘this is great, I’m already saving this stuff,’ so who knows, maybe we’ll make it, and if we do make it, we get a free park bench."

The company provides three containers for the plastic film and posters to advertise and explain the process. The town will place the containers at the transfer station and Town Hall and will handle packaging the plastic film and transport to the distribution center, which happens to be the Stop and Shop in Pawcatuck.

"All we have to do is: we bag it up; we weigh it, we bring it to Stop and Shop," senior said, adding, "it's really simple. We’re just riding on their shoulders of what they’re doing."

She hopes residents will collect their plastic bags and overwraps and drive by Town Hall or the transfer station on Greenhaven Road in Pawcatuck once a week to drop their bags off.

Whether the town gets the park bench or not, she sees the program as a win. It will reduce the number of yellow bags residents have to purchase and divert waste from landfills, because TREX uses the material to make its composite decking.

According to the company website, 95% of Trex's composite decking is made from recycled plastic film and reclaimed sawdust, and a 500-square-foot Trex deck contains 140,000 recycled plastic bags.

Senior said the program is repeatable, and she will continue the program whether the town earns the bench or not. She would like to add a couple more collection sites around town and earn a number of benches, but for now, she would be thrilled with just one.

"I would like it next to the community garden here at the Town Hall," she said, adding that she envisions a plaque on the bench reading, "bench made possible by the plastic film recycling from Stonington residents."