Collecting and sorting plastic grocery bags doesn’t sound like such a task until you consider it takes about 80,000 of them to create anything substantial.
Members of the Tarentum Area Lions Club, along with the Highlands Area Rotary and Knights of Columbus, have collected four times that amount to be upcycled into benches donated throughout local neighborhoods.
Their work is part of the NexTrex plastic film recycling challenge called Bags to Benches.
“We get together every other month at the Brackenridge Salvation Army where we store the plastics,” Lions Club President Jody Shumaker said. “The room is filled, but we get through it pretty quickly.
“It takes time, cooperation and a lot of communication, but it’s well worth it in our eyes, hearts and minds.”
The obvious goal is to curb plastic pollution and divert items from sitting in landfills.
But the mission is also an attempt to spread goodwill.
The groups work together under the moniker “Love Our Community.”
It’s a partnership spurred by the line-of-duty death of Brackenridge police Chief Justin McIntire. Shumaker said members of the three groups came together in February 2023, a month after McIntire was killed by an assailant, with the mission of coordinating projects to benefit local residents.
“Working together to help our immediate community is really what it’s all about,” she said.
Rotary President Joe Lucchino credited the New Kensington Rotary for planting the recycling seed.
“We kind of fell into this opportunity,” he said. “They had been working on this and were looking to move on. We looked at it as a different way to support our community.”
Rotary member Beth Kendra said bags are collected at multiple locations including A1 Rental in Tarentum; the Allegheny Valley Association of Churches, the Community Library of Allegheny Valley and Riverview Senior Apartments, all in Harrison; Mary Queen of Apostles in New Kensington; Oberg in Buffalo Township; and the American Legion and Salvation Army, both in Brackenridge.
Ross Dress for Less at the Pittsburgh Mills shopping complex donates packaging plastic to the cause, Kendra said.
Under the NexTrex challenge, teams must collect 1,000 pounds of soft film plastics within a year to request a bench.
Members of the local groups reached their first goal in just six months.
They awarded the bench to the Salvation Army as appreciation for lending the space for storage and bi-monthly weigh-ins.
The next two were gifted to the American Legion in Brackenridge and Riverview Senior Apartments in Harrison, both of which have collection bins at their sites.
Salvation Army Corps Capt. Selah Bender said it was a gracious gesture. The bench was placed outside the facility along Brackenridge Avenue.
“It’s great to have a collaborative project that does a little something to care for our beautiful world,” Bender said.
Members are working toward a fourth bench. They met in April to sort 78 garbage bags of plastics, weighing more than 415 pounds. Volunteers met again Monday to add another 200 pounds to the total.
“We’re searching for the next place we feel the bench could help out the most,” Lucchino said.
“Although we are the groups behind the project, we wouldn’t be able to accomplish any of this without the help of our amazing community.”