One Thousand Pounds of Plastic Diverted from Landfills

By Sarah Katan

Congratulations to the Claverack Free Library for collecting one thousand pounds of plastic film packaging and recycling with the NexTrex Recycling Challenge rather than letting it go to landfills. Once again, the residents of Claverack and surrounding towns have proven that reducing their environmental impact is important. Collected at the Library, the plastic is weighed and submitted to a local collection center and then utilized by the NexTrex company to make Trex decking. This is all a part of the NexTrex Recycling Challenge, which the Library has participated in for a few years now.

For their efforts, the Library will receive another Trex bench, which will be placed outside for patrons to utilize.

Despite having reached the 1,000 lbs. goal, the Library is still actively collecting plastic and will simply put the collected plastics toward another library or organization’s total weight to help them achieve their goal sooner.

So much more than plastic grocery or take-out bags are acceptable to recycle in this program. You can recycle resealable bags like Ziplock, bubble wrap, plastic shipping envelopes and the bags found inside cardboard cereal boxes! But remember, everything needs to be clean, dry and free of food residue.

Types of plastic that cannot be recycled include pet food bags, pre-washed salad bags, or personal protective equipment (PPE) like gloves or masks.

A good test is to rip the plastic. If it stretches, it is most likely recyclable through this program. If it rips clean it is not recyclable.

To learn more, check out this NexTrex webpage.

Congratulations again to the Claverack Free Library and all the patrons who participated! We can’t wait to see the bench out back. What a win for our community!