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As the winner
of the school prize for Massachusetts Recycles Day 1998
and to serve as 1999's kick-off event, the Laurel Lakes
School of Fall River, MA was awarded a brand new playground
made from 75% recycled plastics (more than 1.5 tons
of recycled consumer milk jugs)! In order to compete
for this playground, students, teachers and parents
from school systems and communities throughout the state
had to make formal pledges to recycle more as well as
buy more recycled products.
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In accepting
the playground, comprised of a variety of entertaining,
fitness and other functioning equipment, Principal Edward
Foley of the Laurel Lakes School stated, "Everyone
in our school system - our students, their teachers
- and even the parents of the children who attend Laurel
Lakes worked extremely hard to win this state-wide competition.
It required a total effort by volunteers in our community
to gather pledges and recycle more and buy more recycled
products. The promise of a brand new playground for
the winning school, plus a greater awareness by the
school generation of the need to recycle were the driving
forces. We're proud of this accomplishment."
"There is a
misconception that recycled content products are difficult
to find," said David Hendrickson, Coordinator for
Massachusetts Recycles Day. "The recycled plastic
playground by the American Plastics Council is the perfect
showcase for the types of top-of-the-line products being
manufactured from the recyclables we place at our curbside
or drop-off at the recycling center."
Plastic bottles such as these are used to make the recycled
playground the students at Laurel Lakes School are now
enjoying.
The playground is
both esthetically and environmentally "pleasing" since the equipment will need virtually no maintenance
due to recycled plastic lumber's resistance to weather
variables. Additionally, the colors on the equipment
are part of the material itself and will never require
touch-up painting, helping to keep maintenance relatively
simple. Use of this plastic lumber also means that children
will never encounter splinters.
In order to promote recycling, the benefits of recycled
plastic lumber and other Massachusetts Recycles Day
activities, APC partnered with MassRecycles, Inc, the
state recycling organization, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and other non-profit associations
in the State. APC also had a number of products made
with recycled plastic on display, including office supplies,
backpacks, fanny packs, fleecewear, and garden and landscape
items.
The American Plastics
Council publishes the Recycled Plastic Products Source
Book, a guide for procurement and business officials
containing over 1400 recycled plastic products. APC's
also has a free pocket-sized consumer's booklet entitled
Shop Recycled! which contains over 240 products available
in grocery and retail outlets around the country. Both
guides can be ordered through APC's website.
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