Even for people who are sticklers about recycling, the rules regarding what plastics can go in which bins can be frustrating.
In Hamilton, only plastics marked as number 1 or number 2 plastics are accepted at the township’s ecological facility, and even then, they are accepted only if they come in certain forms. There are seven classifications of recyclable plastic altogether, but a great deal of it ends up in landfills each year because there is not enough demand for forms of plastic that can be difficult to reuse in a cost effective way.
However, thanks to Girl Scout Dana Trotta and Trex Company, Inc., there have been bins at the Hamilton Township ecological facility over the past year for collecting plastic film — think produce bags and bubble wrap. It is a form of plastic that is not usually collected, but which Trex turns into composite decking material through its NexTrex Recycling Challenge program.
Trotta, who lives in University Heights, set herself a goal of collecting one ton of plastic film over that time. She made the effort the focus of her Girl Scout Gold Award project. The Gold Award is the highest award a scout can earn.
Thanks in large part to plastics contributed by township residents, Trotta reached her goal last month, or at least, she was pretty sure she had — at the time of this writing, she was less than a hundred pounds short with a number of bags of plastic waiting to be sorted.
“I’m so grateful for the support the residents of Hamilton are showing for my project. Thank you to everyone for your support,” Trotta says.
Trotta, an 11th grader at The Hun School of Princeton, already has an impressive résumé when it comes to recycling. For her Girl Scouts Silver Award, she partnered with a company called Preserve to collect number 5 plastics for its “Gimme 5” program.
Though number 5 plastics (yogurt cups, plastic cutlery) are not typically collected, Preserve uses them to make recycled household items such as toothbrushes and reusable water bottles.
While Trotta had success with the Gimme 5 program, not enough people were. Preserve discontinued the program, although it is still in operation today (Web: preserve.eco).
As she was thinking of ideas for her Gold Award, Trotta learned about the NexTrex program from a family friend whose school had embarked on the program. At the time, the NexTrex challenge was to collect 500 pounds of plastic film in six months.
Trotta got started last year, and exceeded her goal by 100%, collecting 1,000 pounds over that period. Much of which she collected came to her through bins placed at the ecological facility. Each week, Trotta would retrieve what had been donated, and go through it to weed out any material that did not meet Trex’s requirements.
As a reward, Trex gave her a bench made of composite materials, which she then dedicated to Hun’s middle school. The bench now sits in a courtyard on the Hun campus.
Since then, Trex changed the program to require 1,000 pounds of plastic to be collected in one year. Since Trotta had already met that requirement once, she decided to go for it again, setting herself a total target of one ton of plastic collected.
And once again, she reached the goal in just six months. In the meantime, The Hun School has started up its own NexTrex program, no doubt inspired by Trotta.
“It’s really great to know that Trex is real company and they’re really committed to making everything sustainable and helping the environment with their practices,” Trotta says.
Trotta says she first became interested in environmental causes when she spent three months in Germany on a family trip with her parents, Janet and Rob.
“While we were there, we explored the bordering countries, we traveled all around Germany and I saw all their sustainable practices,” she says. “They had like eight different bins for plastic and everything was so much more organized with all of their environmental awareness.
“It was like, ‘If these other countries can do it, why can’t we do it in the United States?’”
The Hun School allows students to choose some of their own courses of study, and last year, Trotta chose to study sustainability. As part of the program, she traveled to London to learn about sustainable practices their and how to bring them back to her home community.
“Any time I have a chance to learn about sustainable and environmental practices, I always look to do that,” she says.
Trotta says that staff at the township ecological facility tell her that people dropping off plastics for her program have been asking if there are other ways that they can increase the amount of plastic they are dropping off for recycling.
“I thought if I started this kind of project, I could raise awareness,” Trotta says. “It feels good that so many people are interested in learning more and doing more to help the environment.”
Dana Trotta, a junior at The Hun School of Princeton, with plastic that she has collected to be donated to Trex Company, Inc. to be recycled into composite deck materials. Trotta estimates that the bags in the photo hold just 80 of the 2,000 pounds she collected in her pursuit of a Girl Scout Gold Award.,
