Turning plastics into playtime
Sort and separate, and don’t contaminate: That was the lesson. And students at Big Beaver Elementary School aced the recycling test. The reward for their efforts? A new basketball court — one made with reclaimed plastic.
Big Beaver Elementary School students got a big surprise to start the 2023-2024 school year. Greeting them on day one of classes was a brand-new basketball court — a first for this K-5 school located in Darlington, Pennsylvania. Even better? The new play area was a prize for their hard work learning the right way to recycle plastic.
(Real)ationships mean building community together
Plastics to Play program by the numbers
- $225,000 grant from Shell Polymers Monaca
- 6 Beaver County elementary schools participated
- 400+ students learned the right way to recycle plastics
- 100+ bags of plastics gathered by the elementary students
It all started with a $225,000 grant from Shell Polymers and a partnership with the Beaver County Department of Sustainability and Waste Management. The goal: initiate plastic recycling programs at six elementary schools located near Shell’s state-of-the-art petrochemicals complex in Monaca, Pennsylvania.
The funds paid for recycling education, recycling bins, a full-time trash separator/monitor at the local recycling plant and expanded hours at the Beaver County recycling center.
“We produce plastic at our plant, and our goal is to implement ways to reuse it or give it a second life,” says Curtis Thomas, media relations manager for Shell Polymers. “Kids can’t concentrate on global plastic waste, but they can concentrate on how to recycle plastic properly at school and at home.”
Lunch time is lesson time
As part of the program, students studied recycling in the classroom, then put those lessons into action in the cafeteria. They sorted and separated their lunch waste and deposited plastics in the designated containers.
Most important, they rinsed and cleaned food waste off plastic products — learning how to eliminate the contamination that often results in plastics going to the landfill versus the recycling center.
“When kids deposited plastics the correct way, there was someone there to give them a high-five. When you’re a grade-schooler, a high-five for doing something right is the whole world,” Curtis says. “They worked hard to get those high-fives.”
Recycling gets real
At Big Beaver Elementary, students rose to the recycling challenge — gathering more than 100 bags of plastics over the course of the program. Principal Chad Thomas and his teachers were thrilled to work plastics recycling into their curriculum.
“We’re always working on trying to better ourselves and improve the education our students are getting every year,” Chad says. “The best part was just seeing them say, ‘Oh, I can recycle this! But I can’t recycle that, and this is why.’”
Making the program hands-on, rather than merely a classroom lesson, made a big difference.
“There’s no better way to drive home a message than to make it tangible,” Curtis says. “If you can educate the kids, the kids will educate the parents — and by the time they’re parents themselves, it’s just a way of life.”
Plastics make it possible
Now, every time Big Beaver Elementary students step onto their new basketball court, they’ll get a reminder about recycling. That’s because the surface is made with reclaimed plastic — the same material and process used to pave more than six miles of roads and 47,000 square yards of parking lots at Shell Polymers’ Monaca facility.
“The kids know that recycling can benefit the environment, and it can benefit them directly,” Curtis says. “We wanted to show them that recycling is not only beneficial to the planet, but it’s also fun and easy to do.”
With real results of recycling right under their feet, that’s a lesson Big Beaver Elementary students won’t soon forget.
Watch the video to learn more about the plastics recycling program and see Big Beaver students enjoying their well-earned reward.
This basketball court is going to give the students a dedicated place to play that will be safe, and I feel like we really needed that out here.”
Chad Thomas
Principal, Big Beaver Elementary School
Turning plastics
into playtime