Recycling Grocery Bags

At the National Recycling Coalition conference in September, I learned that two of the Denver-area supermarket chains collect plastic bags and sell them to a company called TREX who mixes them with sawdust to make plastic lumber. The two chains are King Soopers and Albertsons. After learning that, I put up a box outside my cubicle at work to collect them, sent several Emails to our staff, and reward people who bring me their bags by sometimes giving them little mug rugs (coasters) which I weave using newspaper sleeves. When they stop by, I tell them about the recycling programs at these stores and that they can take the bags there themselves or bring them to me. We are now working on our second cubic yard of bags that we have recycled. I call it "Stop By, Say Hi, and Recy...cle." It seems to be working, and King Soopers gets our bags and my business about once a week now. At the same time, I learned that Home Depot accepts used batteries. I set up a box for that too, and so far we have taken about 30 pounds of batteries there.

Patricia Martinek
Colorado Department of Transportation
Research Branch