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Shown in this September 2022 photograph is a bench in front of Bank of the Southwest, 226 N. Main St., made of recycled plastic by Green Tree Plastics. The Indiana company continues offering groups the chance to obtain such benches through its ABC Promise Partnership program. For a modest price and a donation of recyclable caps and lids, groups can obtain these unique benches.
Shown in this September 2022 photograph is a bench in front of Bank of the Southwest, 226 N. Main St., made of recycled plastic by Green Tree Plastics. The Indiana company continues offering groups the chance to obtain such benches through its ABC Promise Partnership program. For a modest price and a donation of recyclable caps and lids, groups can obtain these unique benches.
Southwest Printers LLC continues to accept plastic bottle caps so the caps (and lids) can be recycled into plastic benches by Green Tree Plastics, a business in Evansville, Indiana, that sells benches and other products made with recycled plastics, said Bianca Cheney, owner of Southwest Printers.
Cheney volunteers to help groups interested in obtaining these benches by assisting those who collect the caps and lids.
A variety of community groups in Roswell have obtained recycled benches through Green Tree’s ABC Promise Partnership. The company's program began in 2010 as a way not only to reuse specific caps and lids, but to also teach youths about recycling.
Green Tree charges a modest price for the benches in exchange for a donation of usable caps and lids.
Cheney explained that creating each bench requires about 200 pounds of bottle caps. A finished bench weighs about 185 pounds.
She said she is happy and grateful to accept caps and lids from people willing to donate them. However, sorting through the donations can be time-consuming and requires attention to detail.
Sometimes, “people aren’t super-careful,” she said.
But Cheney stressed that most people try to provide donations that are clean and free of additional items that must be introduced into the recycling process, such as rubber bands, pills and cardboard. No fast-food lids are used in this recycling process and shouldn’t be included with donations for the benches, either.
Some people hold aside recyclable caps and lids they are unsure about to show to Cheney and other volunteers who sort and weigh the donations. They will look at them and explain whether the questionable items are OK to donate.
After going through the donations, the useable materials are placed inside large seed bags for transport to Green Tree's facility in Indiana. Roswell's collections are driven to the out-of-state location. The company's Facebook page notes that loads sent by mail will be discarded.
A local effort arose in mid-2022 to collect and deliver a final load of recyclables so customers in Roswell could get what appeared to be the last benches made by Green Tree. Its owners wanted to retire after years of creating plastic objects through recycling and environmentally aware processes.
Ultimately, there was a buyer for Green Tree and the program was restarted within weeks, Cheney said.
The new operators have since expanded the partnership program to allow more entities to join in.
“Now adult groups are allowed to participate,” Cheney noted.
The caps and lids acceptable for recycling to create these benches are plastic caps and lids numbered 2, 4 and 5. The first two categories are made with polyethylene: Number 2 is high density and Number 4 is a low-density version.
The third type of items that work for this purpose, Number 5, are made of polypropylene.
Recyclers say these three types of plastic are the most easy to reuse.
The identifying numbers are found on the caps and lids. The number is surrounded by a highly recognized symbol for recycling: arrows pointing clockwise and bent to create a three-sided shape that resembles a triangle. However, its edges are rounded instead of having sharp corners.
Some versions of the symbol are shaped like what's known as a Mobius Loop. Each arrow used to form the shape appears to be folded into a soft angle to create the three-sided form. Some other symbols for recycling plastics are less detailed versions of that triangular shape. There are others not shaped triangularly at all and used for other recyclable materials.
Green Tree explained in a recent social media post that the cardboard used on top of the plastic to identify the product or the plain cardboard that lines the inside of these covers both need to be removed.
Cheney also said there are some other lids and caps that can be used in Green Tree's recycling process, but might require the removal of some metal or foam pieces.
Among products placed within these types of plastics are medicine, milk and many other drink bottles with these recyclable caps, as well as lids on containers of peanut butter, cottage cheese, cold dips, tubs of butter, margarine and even ice cream — as long as the lids are less than 8 inches across, Cheney noted.
Gray benches cost $300 and those made in certain colors cost $345. The cost to transport the caps and lids is additional.
In Roswell, about 55 of these benches are in use at schools, churches, parks, downtown and a variety of other locations.
For details, contact Cheney at info@swprint.net or call 575-622-1820.
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