Charlotte earns bench through plastic recycling efforts

In April Charlotter Ken Spencer signed on for the Trex Recycling Challenge, in which a community is encouraged to collect “more than 500 pounds of plastic refuse in a six-month span” or roughly 40,500 plastic bags (this included grocery bags, bread bags, case overwrap, dry cleaning bags, newspaper sleeves, ice bags, wood pellet bags, zip lock and other re-sealable bags, produce bags, bubble wrap, salt bags and cereal bags). Collection bins were placed at Spear’s Corner Store, the Old Brick, the Charlotte Senior Center and the Charlotte Library. When the six-month window closed in September Charlotte was a winner: “We collected about 100 pounds a month,” said Spencer, “so it was fairly easy for us to earn the bench.”

The high-performance composite bench will be placed at the Brick Store. Spencer plans to continue collections with the goal of earning a second bench in March. “People seem to like the service and have been good about bringing their plastics, so we’ll keep the bins where they are and continue this form of recycling,” he says.