St. Stephen’s Recycling Challenge: Win a Bench for Eastway Middle
The Creation Care team is sponsoring the Trex Recycle Challenge at St. Stephen. Trex is the composite decking company that uses recycled plastic film to make its products. If we can recycle 1000 pounds of plastic film within 12 months, Trex will award us an outdoor bench which will be donated to our school partner, Eastway Middle School.
We’re doing great so far! Thanks to the overwhelming support of the congregation, we have recycled over 260 pounds of plastic film as of January 2024! over 500 pounds of plastic film, as of March 2024 over 773 pounds of plastic film — three quarters toward our goal — as of May 2024 and after just six months of collection! When you consider that a bin completely full weighs an average of 8-9 pounds, that’s quite a lot of plastic bags that we are keeping out of the landfill and using for a greater purpose.
Please remember that not all plastic bags are recyclable:
- Check for the recycling symbol on the bag – if there is a slash through it, unfortunately it should be thrown away. Those symbols are often accompanied by the words “plastic pouch” or “multilayered bag.”
- If there is a 2 or 4 inside the symbol, it is recyclable, but not all usable plastic has a symbol.
- If an item is not on the poster on the bins, a good rule of thumb is if it crinkles, we can’t use it; if it stretches, it’s good.
Recycling collection boxes are located off the main lobby/narthex at the playground door, the preschool entrance, and the gym entrance.
