ShareThisBy LOLA ALAPO
Monday, November 20, 2006
A group of students in Knox County, Tenn., are giving their plastics a purpose. Or, as Carly Greene says, trying to "help save the world from disgusting trash."
Pounds of plastic milk containers from the Inskip Elementary third-grader's cafeteria and from 34 other schools will end up not at a landfill, but recycled into reusable materials.
Benches. Fleece jackets. Carpet backing.
"It's awesome," Greene, 8, said after dumping her plastic milk container into a recycle bin placed at Inskip earlier this week.
The National Dairy Council has launched a pilot plastic recycling program, "Drink It Then Sink It," at selected schools, mostly elementary. The organization hopes to use Knox County as a model for other school districts nationwide, said Jill Henderson of the Southeast Dairy Association, the council's regional division.
"We want to show school systems that it does work and it's something kids can be taught at a young age," she said.
It also draws attention to the fact that "we're trying to be Earth-friendly," said Mary Lou Henry, the school system's nutrition program director. "I'm very excited about it, especially since it's not a cost to the school system but a benefit."
The dairy council is partnering with SP Recycling Corp., said Knoxville division manager Becky Ford.
SP will pick up the materials free of charge, she said. Each recycling bin at schools should contain about 500 pounds of plastic at the time of pickup, Ford said.
The volume would be enough to cover collection costs, she said. The company will then sell the plastics to manufacturers.
The bottles are of the same grade as household milk jugs, said Tim Warren, the council's consultant.
"There is much more demand than supply for them," he said.
It's unclear how much money the program will save the school system, said Anthony Parker, purchasing supervisor for maintenance and operations.
"We know anything is better than what we're spending," he said.
The dairy council has tried the program at smaller districts in Texas and Virginia but wanted to try it in a large school system.
It selected 53,000-student Knox County because the system had completed its own small but successful program, Henderson said.
School officials last year converted from cartons to plastic bottles to increase milk consumption and calcium in students' diets, Henry said.
"Kids said it tasted better and it was colder," she said.
As a result, milk consumption increased by 250,000 bottles, Henry said.
Officials decided to try recycling in 11 schools from January through May of this year, she said, and had talked to the council about the initiative.
The dairy council's new program continues through the end of this school year.
