Brooke Konefal

The ECO Club’s bench made from 500 pounds of plastic film waste

Nearly overflowing trash bins piled up with almost 400 students’ lunch garbage is not a new sight to anyone at Coginchaug Regional High School. At this point, many simply discard their wrappers and plastic bags into the garbage bin, turn the other way, and walk away. Yet rather than turning their backs on this issue, the ECO Club is tackling it head on. The club is “an environmentally conscious group” with a mission of “[bringing] awareness to the greater community about ways to create a cleaner Earth for the future.” The excessive amount of plastic waste at CRHS was noticed by the ECO Club members, who were concerned that the plastic waste that could be recycled was being put into the trash. As the ECO Club members put it, they realized that “there had to be an alternative.” This sparked not only research but the formation of a solid actionable plan.

The alternative that the club found? NexTrex Plastic Bag and Film Recycling. According to the ECO Club, NexTrex turns schools’ and communities’ collected plastic waste “[into] Trex composite decking and furniture,” something that truly resonated with their vision for the future of Coginchaug’s plastic waste problem. The CRHS ECO Club sent over 500 pounds of plastic film to NexTrex to be turned into a recycled bench. The ECO Club mentioned that the plastic had been collected “starting from the summer to November [2023].” NexTrex has a mission of keeping “thousands of pounds of waste out of landfills” all while “continuing to make eco-friendly outdoor products.” As these products are sent back to the schools and communities that collect the plastic waste, the true impact of their efforts is extremely evident. While tossing a plastic bottle into the recycling bin is part of being environmentally conscious, actually seeing that plastic waste collected over months and turned into a fully recycled bench is a surreal and motivating experience.

If you have stopped by the CRHS Library, you will have seen that the fruits of the ECO Club’s labor is proudly on display. The gray composite bench hardly resembles the grocery bags, plastic sandwich bags, and bubble wrap that were its humble beginnings. (For a full list of what plastic waste is accepted, please check out the ECO Club’s Instagram posts for details @coginchaugecoclub). The plastic was collected from various sources; the ECO Club mentioned that in addition to having collection bins at Coginchaug, such as in the CRHS Library, they also have set up bins at places including “Durham Pharmacy, Brenda’s Main Street Feed, and the Durham and Middlefield community centers.”

Yet, the ECO Club isn’t stopping there. They have a new goal: to collect 1,000 more pounds of plastic film waste to create another bench. Additionally, the ECO Club has a few grant-funded projects in the works such as a Community Recycling initiative which involves creating a “recycling station in the CRHS Library” to collect beauty product packaging, used office supplies such as pens, pencils, and markers, and wrapping paper and gift waste. The members also plan to create a pollinator garden by recovering and improving the CRHS Library garden, thanks to a grant from the Coginchaug Valley Education Foundation.

The ECO Club hopes to “continue making an impact on helping the planet” through collaborating with the district as well as community members, students, and staff. If you are interested in joining this group, please reach out to advisers Mrs. Mann and Mrs. Fisher to join 30+ like-minded individuals who meet once a month to better not only the school, but the community as a whole. Join in on their goal of making it so one day people will think twice about their unsustainable actions and look for an eco-friendly solution to keep the garbage can from overflowing. Join in on creating a world where single-use plastic isn’t seen as just trash and where everyone can look at a piece of bubble wrap and see its potential to become a bench.