COOPERSTOWN, NY — The Otsego County Schools Plastic Film Recycling Challenge will begin on November 15th, America’s Recycle Day.
Students collect plastic items such as single-use grocery bags, ziplock-style food bags, and wood pellet bags. They then bring the items to the school where they are weighed and the weights are submitted to the OCCA (Oneida County Conservation Association) weekly. The plastic is then collected and recycled.
“Despite New York State’s recently enacted ‘bag ban,’ there are still many types of film plastics in use, and this challenge has been an excellent way to remove them from the waste stream. Over the three years of the challenge, schools and their communities have collected more than 10,000 pounds of film plastic for recycling,” said OCCA program director Jeff O’Handley.
Unlike other types of plastic, such as milk jugs, film plastic is not regularly collected by Ossego County’s recycling program. This is what makes this challenge so great. It gives us the opportunity to recycle these types of plastics.
This challenge is open to all public and private K-12 schools in Ossego County. Schools wishing to register for the challenge should visit the Ossego County Solid Waste Authority website.
The school that collects the most plastic, based on weight, wins the challenge.
