When young visitors explore our education building for the very first time, there is so much for them to look at. Their eyes wander across the various types of taxidermy displayed around the main room, they check in with each of our friendly ambassador animals, and oftentimes, they share surprised reactions to our landfill and recycling display.
As young learners begin to explore topics related to the environment and climate change, many of them gain an understanding of how our consumption impacts the planet. For many, this board creates a tangible representation of consumption information. Kids easily recognize all of the items on display and are shocked by the number of years it takes each item to decompose. I always enjoy working through these numbers with the kids and coming to the realization of how many lifetimes something exists after we use it for only one moment.
While the approximated 1,971,000 years in decomposition time for the plastic water bottle is clearly the biggest shock factor, kids understand the ease and benefit of carrying a reusable water bottle with them, especially during hot summer camp days. It tends to be a little bit trickier for them to work through ideas focused on plastic bag usage. Of course, they know the benefits of paper bags or, even better, reusable bags, but putting those options into practice might not be as easy as it seems. We might forget a reusable bag, or not have enough to hold our entire purchase. Or, when shopping online, we might not have the option of choosing sustainable shipping materials. Even with the best intentions, sometimes plastic consumption is unavoidable.
With that in mind, and with the hope of continuing young learner’s passion to make impactful sustainable choices, we are now participating in a community recycling program through a company called NexTrex. This program encourages participants to collect one thousand pounds of household plastic materials. Once the community has collected and delivered plastic for recycling, NexTrex will turn plastic materials into a well-crafted bench for our park.
The materials that make up this thousand pounds come from plastic bags like the one kids see on our display board. Additionally, any similar stretchy plastic that typically isn’t accepted by curbside recycling companies is accepted in this recycling endeavor.
Here is what you can do to help support an environmental issue that our young generation is passionate about:
- Identify recyclable plastics with your family. We can accept plastic shopping bags, plastic shipping materials like gray bags or bubble wrap, and tissue product wrap. If you would like to recycle food related stretchy plastics such as bread bags, produce bags, or food storage bags, please clean out all food material beforehand.
- Collect these plastics. It is helpful to designate a spot in your house to store collected plastics. Having a spot makes it easier to know what to do with the plastics as we use them, instead of just tossing them in the trash.
- Bring your collected bundle of plastics to Ney. During open weekday office hours, our staff will be happy to take the plastics you have gathered. Our recycling storage bin is located just under the landfill display board.
- Celebrate our new bench when we reach our goal of 1,000 pounds of collected plastics!
With your help, we believe that we can reach our recycling goal. Thank you for supporting our young learners as they gain a better understanding of how they can participate in something they care about.