Oak Park and River Forest High School is a recycling center for thin film plastics as of this November, following a collaboration between the Environment Club and NexTrex recycling. The club, which organizes environment-related outreach programs in the Oak Park and River Forest communities, is student-led. Co-President Poppy Booth helped organize the thin-films recycling project as part of the club’s efforts to make the Oak Park community more environmentally friendly.
“Thin film plastics are basically just any kind of stretchy plastic, like clear or slightly opaque, that a lot of food and other products come wrapped in,” Booth said. “It’s important to be able to recycle them because there is so much of it used. There’s just a lot of thin film plastics that just accumulate in your life because of their small size.”
Thin films are useful for many types of packaging because of their low cost – hence its use in plastic bags, shipping envelopes, bubble wrap and more. Because they are so thin, they melt at a lower temperature, making them unable to be processed at normal recycling facilities. So the club partnered with Nextrex Recycling, which specializes in thin films and has a facility capable of turning the plastic films into usable furniture.
According to Booth, “If we raise the required 1,000 pounds of plastic, [Nextrex will] give us a bench [made from recycled plastic].”
Aside from this project, Booth and other members find the club a very rewarding experience. “I would say for me, Enviro club helps me be more environmentally conscious in my everyday life, obviously working towards the projects that we have in the club, but also just talking to my family about climate and the environment, or trying to do small things in my everyday life sorting my recycling or composting,”
The thin-film drop-off is located in the OPRF main entrance on the left, just across from the front desk. Eligible items for drop off are grocery/retail bags, clear plastic wraps, ziploc bags, and other stretchy plastics detailed on the Nextrex website.