What To Do With 500lbs Of Plastic Bags: Greenfield School Answers

GREENFIELD, WI — Many households may be familiar with the infamous plastic "bag-of-bags" under the sink that tends to grow with each visit to the supermarket. It's no wonder that the pile grows, as finding a place to recycle them in Greenfield can be tough.

That's where Maple Grove Elementary School in the Greenfield School District has stepped in with three 2nd grade teachers who are teaching their classes about a different use for the thousands of tons of plastic bags Americans use each year: recycled building materials.

Alongside their classes, teachers Gina Waise, Vicki Kruse and Samantha Jodoin are collecting plastic bags for the NexTrex recycling program. So far, the classes have collected about 500 pounds of plastic, the teachers said in a statement to Patch.

The program seeks to divert plastic film of many types from landfills, opting instead to turn the plastic into composite building materials that can be used for decks and outdoor furniture, according to the NexTrex website.

"It is great to witness the student’s excitement toward this project. Students have taken ownership of the project," the team of second-grade teachers said in the statement, "Students have become more aware of what can and cannot be recycled and how their choices impact the environment."

"Students have become passionate about keeping our land and oceans clean for future generations," the second-grade teachers added.

Second-grade students were first introduced to lessons about recycling as their teachers looked for a service project idea. They then created videos about what can and can't be recycled, their teachers said in the statement.

It was after interviewing one of the school's custodians that the classes realized their service project idea: Maple Grove's recycling company doesn't accept plastic bags.

So after some research, the second-grade team said they found the NexTrex community program to fill the recycling gap. Maple Grove's second-grade team adopted the program as a service project that can correlate with a social studies unit about Maple Grove's community character, teachers said.

It's the first year that the school has adopted the program, and since November, when the collection began, students have emerged as leaders in collecting plastic, their teachers say.

Teachers collect the bags weekly from their students who find the many bits of plastic used at their parent's place of work, throughout their personal life or simply by word-of-mouth. They then return to the classroom each Friday. The bags are combined and students weigh them. They are then delivered to a recycling location by Krystal Lockett, an impact coach at the school who has helped to spearhead the program.

At the end of the program, and depending on how many pounds of plastic the school collects, Maple Grove may win a cash prize and a new composite bench like the one their plastic collection helps to make.