The grass isn't the only thing getting greener this spring, thanks to the students at Mountain View School. Over the past six months, Mountain View School students, in conjunction with the Mendham Borough Home School Association, collected and recycled a grand total of more than 1573 pounds of polyethylene plastic as part of the Trex® Plastic Film Recycling Challenge, which concluded on Earth Day, April 22nd. This impressive total, combined with creative promotion and community engagement, earned our school top honors along with a new eco-friendly bench for the school's campus.
Hosted by Trex Company, the world's largest manufacturer of high-performance, low maintenance composite decking and outdoor living products, the nationwide challenge kicked off last fall on America Recycles Day (Nov. 15). Between that observance and Earth Day, K-12 students across the country competed to collect and recycle the most polyethylene plastic film for the chance to win Trex products for their schools.
"The Trex Plastic Film Recycling Challenge put our students on a mission to collect as much recycled plastic film as they possibly could, proving a fantastic opportunity to connect and engage with our local community," said Kristen Huang. “Each student had a lot of fun in the process, while learning a tremendous amount about the necessity and value of recycling. It was a phenomenal experience, and we are so proud of everyone's efforts to make a positive difference within our school campus, as well as in our community."
Students from 686 schools participated in the 2021-2022 challenge and, together, collected a combined total of 323,586 pounds of polyethylene plastic film.
Started in 2007, the Trex Plastic Film Recycling Challenge was conceived to educate students about upcycling and actively engage them in the recycling of plastic film, a key ingredient in the making of high-performance, low-maintenance and eco-friendly Trex® composite decking. In fact, Trex decking is made from 95% recycled and reclaimed materials, including a mix of industrial wood scrap and polyethylene plastic from a variety of common household items such as grocery bags, newspaper sleeves and bubble wrap, as well as retail plastic waste from pallet wrap and industrial packaging. Each year, Trex upcycles nearly 400 million pounds of plastic waste otherwise destined for incineration or landfills, making it one of the largest recyclers of plastic film in North America.
For more information about the Trex Plastic Film Recycling Challenge, visit Recycle.Trex.com.