The Rotary Club of Westborough will collect recyclable plastics during its 11th Trex Plastic Film Recycling Challenge. The volunteer event takes place this Saturday, May 22 from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. at the rear of Kohl's retail store in Northborough.
We encourage everyone to bring their plastics collection directly to Kohl's at the scheduled time this Saturday, We very much need volunteers, to help out with the large plastics amount at the site. To volunteer, click here.
Please note: No plastics with metallic or cardboard linings will accepted.
To download the poster on our Trex Recycling Challenge, either click here or on the image at right. The poster includes the collection dates and the recyclable plastics.
During our May 8 drive, we collected 304 pounds of film plastics. Since we started last November, our cumulative total is 1,908 pounds of this material, which would otherwise have ended in landfills, water bodies and/or oceans. So far, we have collected nearly four times our original goal of 500 pounds.
The following volunteers attended the May 8 drive: Westborough High School students Lyndsey Kenny, Brady Henderson and Tiffany Zheng; and club member Jim Comes.
A big thanks and kudos to the Girl Scouts for their remarkable effort during the May 8 drive. With guidance from Zero Waste Westborough, they were the highlight of our enormous collection. The Westborough Department of Public Works had kindly provided the Girl Scouts a shed for temporary storage of this plastics collection. Concord Rotarian Karen Henderson made two trips to the DPW office, and Lauren Buerstatte, from Zero Waste, helped Karen load the collection to her vehicle, at the shed.
Club member Shelby Marshall picked up collections from Central One Federal Credit Union and Burroughs Family Branch YMCA. Earlier during that week, club member Elliott Rittenberg had picked up collections from the credit union. At Kohls, Lindsey, Brady and Tiffany weighed and tallied the collection. All volunteers helped to load the collection onto the Kohl's recycling truck-trailer.
Thanks to everyone for participating.
This will be our last collection before we take a summer recess. We will resume the collection drives after Labor Day weekend.
Our plan is to keep the biweekly schedule, and run the events during the following periods - for as long as sustainable:
- Weekend after Labor Day to weekend before Thanksgiving Day.
- Weekend after Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday to before Memorial Day.
This is because the winter holiday season is a busy period for Kohls’ - and summer provides a break for our volunteers.
We look forward to your participation in our May 22 event!
For more information, contact Sharad Mehta, chair of the Westborough club's Committee on the Enviroment, at 774-288-9091 or cote@westboroughrotary.org.
For comments, questions or technical issues, contact us at rotaryd7910@gmail.com.