Stop and Shop Donates Environmentally Friendly Benches to Monroe Elementary School

Monroe Elementary School third graders were joined by (left to right): Monroe Stop & Shop Store Manager, Melissa Insalaco- Gillon, Third Grade Teacher, Janet Densky, Monroe Elementary School Principal, Debra Kovachi and Jim Keenoy, Director Marketing and External Communications for Stop & Shop NY Metro.

Stop & Shop donated two environmentally friendly benches to Monroe Elementary School that have been built from 12,000 recycled plastic bags that otherwise would have been discarded.

Stop & Shop has embraced the concept of “Building with Bags.” When plastic bags are recycled, they can be re-purposed into plastic lumber used to make backyard decks and fences, playground equipment, and park benches.

Monroe Stop & Shop Store manager, Melissa Insalaco- Gillon says, “'Reduce, reuse, recycle' has been the mantra among the environmentally conscious for the last 25 years. Stop & Shop is very pleased to be able to benefit the community and protect the environment at the same time."

Plastic bags can take many years to degrade, and may release toxic chemicals into the soil if they are littered. They can also pose a threat to marine life that mistake the plastic bags for food. When improperly disposed, plastic bags become harmful to the environment. Over one billion plastic bags are used every day, which equates to about four bags for every person in the United States per day that needs to be disposed of.