PLAINWELL, Mich. — Piles of plastic have been building up at Starr Elementary in Plainwell since September. Their goal is to collect 1,000 pounds to recycle. The only problem is the school year ends on Friday, and they're still 230 pounds short.
“At the beginning, they were like, 'Are we gonna make it?' I'm like, 'We're gonna make it. I'm gonna figure this out,'" said Neta Taggett, a behavioral specialist aid at the school.
She's also the one who approached school leaders about the recycling challenge from NexTrex, a company that specializes in plastic bag and film recycling.
The Bags to Benches program asks people, like Taggett, to collect 1,000 pounds of clean plastic. In return, NexTrex will make and sends custom benches made from the very same recycled materials.
“It's helping the kids because they're also realizing that this would go into the trash instead of coming here," Taggett explained. "Recycling on its own is a great option, and it helps the environment and it saves animals, which is my favorite."
Taggett will collect clean plastic bags — anything from produce, Ziploc and bread bags to newspaper sleeves and more.
Then, she'll throw the bag on the scale, sometimes with the help of her students, and at the end of every month, she'll drop the bags off at Meijer.
While they quickly add up in size, Taggett said the weight is a different story.
"That is 185 pounds of plastic right there," Taggett said, referring to the pile of bags in the picture above.
That's why she says it's been so difficult — a lot of plastic only leads to a little movement on the scale, all this while the window to get it done continues to close quickly.
“We will not be allowed back in the building until August when school starts back, so I'm hoping to hit our goal of 230 pounds [remaining] in the next two days," Taggett said.
Despite the stress, Taggett is confident they'll make it happen and already can't wait to try again next year.
"It's less work for me," she told FOX 17. "[The kids] are learning that this is helping saving the environment, and that's all I can do for them; just give them a better future.”
If you want to help Starr Elementary reach its goal, just drop off clean plastic bags in the bins they have set up outside the school before the end of the day Friday.
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