A Possibility for Recycled Plastics in Cumberland County
By Albert B. Kelly
Every once in while you come across an idea that is elegant
in its simplicity- that’s not to say it’s easy, but an idea that makes you
wonder why more people aren’t doing it. That was my thought when an
acquaintance described Eco Plastic Products located in Wilmington, Delaware.
Eco Plastics (www.ecoplasticproducts.org)
is a nonprofit organization started by Jim Kelley and Charlie Falletta a couple
of years ago.
The focus of Eco Plastics is collecting discarded plastic in
all its glorious forms and turning it into useful products that can be
purchased by consumers- it sounds simple enough. The products include benches,
picnic tables, sand boxes, bike racks, and other furniture-type products that
lend themselves to molds and hardened plastic. Whatever they make is from 100%
recycled plastic. In addition to selling products, consistent with their
nonprofit status, Eco Plastics donates to other non-profit organizations as
well. Their efforts extend to schools to help educate students about recycling
and they are involved with supporting other nonprofit organizations through
donations.
The first thing that caught my attention is the fact Eco
Plastics is meeting a need in terms of what to do with the mess of plastics
that can no longer be part of the recycling stream. If you recall, only
plastics labeled 1 and 2 can be accepted into our local single stream
recycling. That leaves quite a few types of plastics that we simply don’t know
how to dispose of. Consider just the single use plastic bag shoppers get from
the grocery store or convenience stores- these alone create huge problems in
terms of trash, litter, and our environment. These bags can take many decades
to decompose.
What if we had an operation and facility, perhaps connected
with our Improvement Authority, to repurpose the mess of plastics in our county
similar to what Eco Plastics is doing in Delaware? Using Eco Plastics as a
model, we would need a “densifier” to shred plastic bags and a “granulator”
which would chop up plastic jugs. Once this first step is completed, the broken
down materials would be mixed with saw dust and color and poured into an
“extruder” which melts the plastic and pushes it into a mold to harden. Those
molds represent the pieces to be assembled into a bench, table, or similar
final product. I caught a glimpse of this process on their website
New though they are, Eco Plastics is placing their products
around the state of Delaware whether at school yards, commercial businesses,
municipal or county parks, or in the backyards of customers. Given our need for
an end point for all the plastics that can’t go into our single stream
recycling, as well as the tsunami of plastic bags we’re contending with, there
may be value in considering a similar operation here in our county.
I have no doubt that it would be successful given the
innovative team at the Cumberland County Improvement Authority. We’ve got
plenty of plastic; such an operation would create a few needed jobs as well as
creating products that could be sold at a modest price to schools, governments,
and consumers who are interested in helping their immediate environment in a
sustainable way.
As for start-up funding, it may be possible to ask our state
and federal partners for the necessary resources to get such an operation off
the ground and I could see such a program being a primary mechanism in building
relationships with our schools and students to educate and raise awareness
about recycling in our homes and our neighborhoods.
In terms of collecting materials, such a program might have
schools competing against one another to see which school could bring in the
most plastic bags or plastic containers with the winning school receiving
products from recycled materials for their playgrounds and classrooms. If
nothing else, looking at a finished product such as bench or table, students
would be able to see the impact of their efforts in a very direct way.
In the short video clip on their website that I watched, Eco
Plastics owner Jim Kelley said that he believed that every county in the
country should have an operation similar to the one they have at Eco Plastics.
That statement stuck with me and considering the needs of our environment and
the moving target that has become recycling in this country, I would have to
agree.