TOWSON, Md (WMAR) — The local chapter of Goodwill is on a mission to turn hundreds of thousands of pounds of single-use plastic trash into building material.
In a first of its kind venture, Goodwill of the Chesapeake is partnering with the plastic decking company Trex to turn hundreds of thousands of pounds of plastic film trash into outdoor building material.
“It’s just a continual evolution of us looking to repurpose and recycle everything we get,” said Bob Prosser, Chief Retail Officer for Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake.
They are collecting all the flexible types of plastic, like bubble wrap, dry cleaning bags, utensil wrappers and shopping bags.
“Most people who bring us clothing to donate, which we are very grateful for, it comes in plastic bags. It might be a kitchen catcher type of bag; it might be a leaf type of trash bag but all of that is something we can repurpose in this program,” said Prosser.
Prosser said in the first three months, the DMV locations collected 40,000 pounds of film, and over the next year they hope to get over 300,000 pounds with the goal of significantly reducing plastic pollution in landfills and the environment.
“This is exactly the kind of thing we want to be seeing,” said Jenn Aiosa, Chief Sustainability Officer for Baltimore County.
Aiosa said this program is great because plastic film is very hard to dispose of: it doesn’t degrade and it causes problems at trash and recycling facilities.
“They tangle up in the machinery that sorts recyclables,” said Aiosa.
Goodwill is looking to partner with dry cleaners as well to extend the reach of this program. Aiosa hopes more businesses and nonprofits take on an initiative like this.
“This is a great opportunity I think to demonstrate how some of these materials can be beneficially reused,” said Aiosa. “We really want the things we put in the recycling bin to be used for new products and so making long lasting decking and other artificial wood products out of this film that can’t be recycled is the best of both worlds.”
Trex pays Goodwill for the plastic. Trex composite decking is made of 95 percent recycled plastic film and reclaimed wood. The typical 500 square-foot composite Trex deck contains more than 140,000 recycled plastic bags, films and wraps.
The plastic film has to be clean and dry. You can drop off plastic film refuse at any of Goodwill locations in Baltimore and surrounding counties.
