A Plastic Bench as a Lesson in Recycling

A bench created from 500 pounds of recycled plastic caps collected by Essity and Fairview 4H Club members, and sorted by the 4H Club, was recently dedicated to Outagamie County Parks (placed next to the Newton Blackmour State Trail) and in the Village of Black Creek, Wisconsin.

Essity, the leading global hygiene and health company with local operations in Neenah and Menasha Wisconsin, partnered with the Fairview 4H Club (located in Black Creek) in a sustainability project to collect and sort plastic caps. The 4H Club members, ranging in age from five to fifteen, spent many hours sorting through the caps to prepare them for recycling; then in early spring 2017, 500 pounds of caps were shipped by freight donated by ABF and recycled by Green Tree Plastics in Evansville, IN, in exchange for a park bench made of recycled plastics donated by Essity. Plastic caps are not recyclable with the comingled recycled items in the tri-county area, so this effort is keeping caps out of the landfill. 

Since 2014, Essity employees have been collecting caps, and the 4H Club joined the effort in 2016.  Essity will continue to collect caps with the goal of exchanging them for the next piece of equipment, thus supporting a smaller environmental footprint. Essity practices a tremendous commitment to sustainability in how it manufacturers many of its paper products (using recycled materials) and in supporting organizations globally and locally who share in that commitment.  

Essity has approximately 950 employees in the Fox Cities, including nearly 760 between its Menasha mill and Neenah converting facility and 170 at its Service Excellence Center in the town of Menasha. In addition to Wisconsin, Essity has U.S. operations in Alabama, Arizona, Kentucky, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

More information at www.essity.com.