Students, staffers, classes and clubs at Nandua High School collected 152,145 plastic grocery bags to earn a new Trex wood-alternative bench. Today, 152,145 plastic grocery bags later, the school now proudly displays a bench made of recycled plastic and sawdust -- the award given to the Accomack County school that collected the most bags between Oct. 1, 2009, and Earth Day, April 22.
The program was launched by Trex, the country's largest manufacturer of wood-alternative decking, and Food Lion. Bags collected at the school were taken to Food Lion, where they were collected and moved to Trex's location in Winchester.
"I've been nicknamed the 'bag lady' at Food Lion," teacher Susan Wilder joked.
Wilder played a key role in starting the bag collection program at Nandua, and her class -- the program's "Grand Central Station" -- was essential in counting and tallying the bags collected by the school.
"She was instrumental," said English teacher Kathy Evans.
The plastic bag recycling program was launched in addition to the school's Hi-Y and Tri-Hi-Y recycling program, "because the convenience center didn't take plastic bags," Wilder said.
To provide incentive to recycle bags, Nandua initiated a school-wide competition among all first-block classes. At the end of each month, the class that collected the most bags was given a doughnut party, and the winner at the end of the semester held a pizza party.
Evans' AP English class won the competition.
"It was amazing how much fun we had with the bags. Once it was finished, the kids just wanted to continue with it," she said of her students.
Every Tuesday, Evans' class joins George Boggs and the Hi-Y and Tri-Hi-Y clubs for a school-wide collection of recyclables. The bags used to collect the recyclables are emptied and put in the bins provided by Trex.
Since Nandua's recycling initiative began, it has expanded to almost every classroom. Just a month ago, Nandua got a receptacle for its recyclables so students no longer have to load them onto the back of Boggs' truck.
The bench, which is made of 4,500 plastic bags, will eventually be placed outside to replace an older, broken-down bench.
