New Roberto Clemente Learns the Art of ReUsing!

Ms. Gonzalez’s 7th grade classes at New Roberto Clemente School reused old common items and made them new again by creating beautiful works of art. Instead of going to the store to buy a new purse, you can take an empty gallon of milk, an old t-shirt, a button, and a necklace and transform it into a purse like Yordenis did. Or for your next party, you can use Fernando’s candle votive made from a plastic soda bottle, aluminum foil, and a candle. Need a vase try Vanilda‘s upside-down light bulb vase or yordenis‘s glass bottle and gift ribbons. Going out tonight, you can try on Amy’s hair pins made from zippers, rubber bands, buttons, and thread or Gabriela’s earrings and bracelet made from soda can tops, ribbons, and hooks. Soila even tried the old t-shirt tote bag idea from our previous newsletter. One of our favorites was Smerlyn’s decorative box made from an old box, keyboard keys, and a USB cord. So you see, we don’t always need to buy new thing and waste money and materials, sometime we can reuse what we already have and save our landfills from added trash. Don’t throw it away, reuse it today! NRC really is Going Green - Awesome!

What Can You Do With Grocery Bags?

If you look on the bottom of that plastic bag from your grocery store, you will find a number. This is the Resin Code, which identifies what kind of plastic it is. The number on most of these bags is 2, which means it is high-density polyethylene (HDPE). If you look around, you will find the number 2 on all sorts of things. For example, milk jugs and laundry detergent containers are made of HDPE. Paterson, like most towns and cities, recycles HDPE. However, even though plastic bags are made of HDPE, you cannot put them in your recycling bin. Why not?

Well, as it turns out, these bags are no good for the machines that automatically sort recyclable plastics. They can get caught in the conveyor belts and other mechanisms, reeking havoc on the machines, and even shutting down the whole assembly line! People often fill these bags with stuff before throwing them into their bins. The stuff inside can be anything, recyclable or not, so it is the policy of most recycling centers to throw away any of these filled bags automatically.

Not to worry! There is an easy way to help. Most grocery stores have recycling centers for these plastic bags. Just make sure they’re clean and that there’s nothing in them before you drop them off. They are then taken to plants with equipment suited to recycle plastic bags. You can also try and find ways to reuse these bags; try using them to store and organize things or, if you’re doing something messy, try wearing them over your shoes to protect hem. As always, a great way to help out is to avoiding using plastic grocery bags altogether and to get cloth bags!