How to boost the local economy using plastics
Every once in a while you come across an idea that is elegant in its simplicity, one that makes you wonder why more people aren’t using it. That was my thought when an acquaintance described Eco Plastic Products of Delaware, a nonprofit organization located in Wilmington.
Started a couple of years ago by former solar industry workers Jim Kelley and Charlie Falletta, the focus of Eco Plastic 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, sandboxes, bike racks and furniture, molded from 100% recycled plastic. In addition to selling products, Eco Plastic, consistent with its nonprofit status, donates to other nonprofit organizations. Their mission includes going into schools to help educate students about recycling.
One thing that caught my attention is that Eco Plastic is meeting a need in terms of what to do with the mess of plastics that are no longer part of the recycling stream. Recently, many places, including Bridgeton, have limited single-stream curbside recycling to those plastic items labeled “1” or “2.” That leaves quite a few types of plastic that we simply don’t know how to dispose of. Consider the single use plastic-bag shoppers get from grocery or convenience stores. While these were never allowed in curbside recycling, the bags create huge trash, litter and our environmental problems. If landfilled, they can take many decades to decompose.
What if we had an operation and facility, perhaps connected with the Cumberland County Improvement Authority, to repurpose the unwanted plastics in our county? Using Eco Plastic as a model, we would need a machine called a “densifier” to shred and compress plastic bags, and a “granulator” to chop up items such as plastic jugs.
Once broken down, the materials would be mixed with sawdust and color pigment, and poured into an extruder that melts the plastic and pushes it into a mold of a piece of a bench, for example. It’s then allowed to harden.
New though it is, Eco Plastic is placing its products around Delaware at school yards, businesses, community parks and in the back yards of residential customers.
There may be value in considering starting up a similar operation in Cumberland County. I have no doubt that it would be successful given the innovative team at the CCIA. We’ve got plenty of plastic; the operation would create a few needed jobs, as well as create products that could be sold at a modest price to schools, governments and consumers who are interested in helping their 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. I could see a plastic recycling program being a primary mechanism in a relationship with our schools to educate students and raise awareness about local recycling.
In order to collect materials, we could have schools compete with each other to see which one brings in the most plastic bags or plastic containers. A winning school could receive recycled-materials products for its playground and classrooms. If nothing else, when looking at a finished 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 Plastic co-owner Jim Kelley said he believes every county in the country should have an operation similar to theirs. That statement stuck with me. Considering the needs of our environment, and the moving target that has become recycling in this country, I would have to agree.
