ONSLOW COUNTY, NC— A broad coalition of cities, counties, businesses, and recycling will launch a campaign in Coastal North Carolina to encourage residents and visitors to recycle plastics bags and consumer product wraps.
The recycling awareness campaign will kick off Saturday, July 8, 2017 at the Earth and Surf Festival- a popular, annual environmental awareness event at North Topsail Beach, NC. The campaign includes a variety of public outreach efforts sponsored by the American Chemistry Council, Onslow County Solid Waste and Keep Onslow Beautiful and Sonoco Recycling. Additional events in other coastal communities will occur throughout the summer to help spread the campaign messages.
The campaign emphasizes the importance of not putting plastic bags and wraps in curbside recycling bins. Instead, these bags can be returned for recycling to major grocery and retail stores such as Food Lion, Walmart, Target, Harris Teeter and Publix. Consumers simply collect their clean, dry bags and wraps in a plastic bag and drop them in a storefront recycling bin. To identify what materials can be recycled and the nearest recycling locations, check out plasticfilmrecycling.org.
The campaign is part of Coastal North Carolina’s WRAP (Wrap Recycling Action Program), an innovative public/private partnership that promotes recycling of plastic film beyond bags. The partnership is comprised of members of the grocery, plastics, and recycling communities who help spread the word about plastic bag and wrap recycling.
In addition to increased recycling and reduced solid waste going to landfills, one potential benefit of the campaign is a decrease in litter in waterways and on beaches. Plastic bags and wraps that enter the recycling stream are much less likely to be littered.
“The most important thing coastal residents and visitors can do to keep our beaches and waterways clean is to bring back plastic grocery bags to their local grocery store for recycling,” said Lisa Rider, Onslow County Solid Waste Deputy Director. “They also can take back other plastic bags such as zip top food storage bags, the bags for newspapers, produce, bread, and dry-cleaning, plus- the plastic wraps from products such as paper towels, diapers, cases of water and more.”
The plastic bags and wraps are recycled into products such as new grocery bags, park benches, and decking for homes. For more information on the campaign visit plasticfilmrecycling.org.
###
