LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Plastic bags come in handy for getting groceries out of the car and into the house. What do you do with the bags once they’ve served their purpose, though? Lexington’s Sustainability Section is collecting plastic bags with the goal of making it into a LexTran bench.
“When we talk about this program, even though for shorthand we call it bags to benches, as you can see um from our graphics, we take all kinds of plastic film,” environmental initiatives specialist Chrissie Balding said.
“I think it's awesome and I think it's so perfect initiatives like this for our stores specifically,” said Kara Shepherd, marketing director for Good Foods Co-op. “I know that's something really important to our customers. I also think it's cool because we don't offer plastic bags. You bring your own bag here, so I think it's kind of fun to take others and make it into something cool”
It will take 1,000 pounds of plastic to build the bench. After just a week and a half, Balding says the community has had a positive response.
“The challenge will go for up to one year or until we reach 1,000 pounds, whichever happens first,” Balding said. “Given the excitement from the community and the enthusiasm, I think that we should reach it probably within six months.”
“It has been crazy. I mean, I think the first day that it was out, it filled up that day,” Shepherd said. “We've been kind of having little extra areas and moving bags back to another storage spot because people are just bringing them in and drove, so that's awesome to see.”
Balding stopped by Good Foods Co-op, one of the five bin locations, to pick up another load of bags for the benches. These are the locations of the bins:
- Good Foods Co-op, 455 Southland Drive
- LFUCG Government Center, 200 East Main Street
- Lextran, 200 West Loudon Ave.
- Lex Center for Creative Reuse, 110 Luigart Court, Unite 150
- Wild Birds Unlimited, 152 North Locust Hill Drive
You can drop off more than just plastic bags, but not all plastic can be recycled towards the bench. Each of the bins has guidelines on the front showing what type of plastic to drop in. No paper is allowed, and do not drop off contaminated plastic.
“Things like bubble wrap, saran wrap,” Balding said. “Now it should be totally clean and not have any food on it, please.”
You can go to lexingtonky.gov/sustainability and click on "plastic bag recycling" to learn more and keep up with a running total.
