SUSSEX COUNTY, Del.- Thursday is Earth Day and DNREC is celebrating by doing its part. Working with the non-profit, Eco Plastic Products of Delaware, they are turning plastic bags into benches.
DNREC's Carry In- Carry Out program used to offer plastic bags for visitors to stick trash in. They recently switched to paper and corn products, leaving them with hundreds of thousands of plastic bags. So they're getting creative finding ways to recycle them.
"We can make pretty much anything. We can take really any type of plastic and turn it into a bench, a table, parking blocks, whatever," said Stephanie Alerbtini with the non-profit.
Instead of simply throwing away the many plastic bags, DNREC wants to turn them into something visitors at the state parks can enjoy.
"Plastic lumber, as you may know, lasts a lot longer than wood does. Wood will rot away and you have to build it again, but plastic lumber is really durable for a long time," said environmentalist Charlie Garlow.
All together DNREC has about 450-thousand plastic bags. That equals two-thousand pounds. It takes about 30-thousand bags to make once bench, so DNREC will have about 15 new benches to place across the state parks.
The benches coming to the state parks will be a solid, beige color. Production starts soon, and DNREC is hoping to place the benches across the state parks by the fall.