St. Charles Kiwanis clubs collecting plastic bags to make benches
The St. Charles Kiwanis Club and the Golden K Kiwanis Club are joining in the fight against plastic pollution, with St. Charles reaping the benefit.
The clubs have teamed with Trex, a recycled materials manufacturer of wood-alternative outdoor items, to produce a total of four benches made from recycled plastic bags, for use in St. Charles.
Each bench takes 500 pounds of plastic bags to make; that's about 38,000 plastic bags.
The Key Clubs at St. Charles East and North high schools, affiliates of Kiwanis, are also assisting with plastic bag collection, which takes place monthly in a downtown parking lot.
Landfills receive 27 million tons of plastic each year, taking hundreds of years to biodegrade and leaking pollutants into the soil and waterways.
One ton of recycled plastic may seem insignificant next to these numbers, but it will save the city of St. Charles 685 gallons of oil, 30 cubic yards of landfill space, 98 million BTUs of energy, and 5,700 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.
The St. Charles Kiwanis Club has been serving the community since 1923. The club meets via Zoom on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at noon. To learn more about the St. Charles Kiwanis Club, visit www.kiwanisofstcharles.org or www.facebook.com/StCharlesKiwanis/.
The St. Charles Golden K Kiwanis Club meets the first and third Thursdays of the month. For details, contact Nancy French at (630) 222-6513