Bags for Benches, an initiative run by Calabasas students Michael Bronshteyn, Gavin Tesser, Skyler Fong, and Ray Schaffer, along with the Calabasas Environmental Commissioners, David Cohan and Luresa Byrne, has successfully collected over a thousand pounds of plastic bags in under 12 months. For reference, a plastic bag typically weighs around 6 grams. There are about 453.592 grams in one pound, meaning Bags for Benches collected over 453,592 plastic bags to reach their overall goal of a thousand pounds. But how did CHS get involved with a project like this, and what about this bench?
The CHS students involved in this project began their work as a part of the subcommittee for the Environmental Commission of the City of Calabasas. NexTrex, a recycling company that helps find ways to recycle plastic and film, had a recycling challenge that Bags for Benches participated in this past school year. The students brought up the NexTrex project at a meeting in August and began their campaign in September. The requirements of the challenge were that a school or community had to collect a thousand pounds of plastic bags within 12 months. If they complete the challenge, they are awarded a bench.
“There’s a company called NexTrex that for decades, they have collected plastic from grocery stores around the country. And this company adds in wood chips and whatever else with the plastic, and they make this decking material that a lot of people know and use in their backyards and their patios,” said Cohan.
To collect the bags, the students set up bins around the Calabasas area where people could dispose of their plastic waste.
“We started with a couple of locations throughout Calabasas, like at the district office, and we would collect plastic. So we specifically collected Type Two and Type Four plastics, which are like the stretchy type of plastics, like grocery bags. And we would collect these plastics, and about every week or so, we take them from the District Office or the other locations that we had, like the Fazio Dry Cleaners, and we would take them to Ralphs or Albertsons and deposit the plastic there,” said Bronshteyn.
The Senior Center was a big contributor to the Bags for Benches mission, being one of the most impactful donation centers.
“We also had a location at the Senior Citizens Center, which is nice to see, because they’re passionate about it. It’s nice to get to know more people involved, not just high school kids and teachers,” said Bronshteyn.
Although the bench is a nice bonus, the group’s ultimate goal was to reduce plastic in landfills. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, about 5% of plastic is recycled in the United States, while 86% is sent to landfills. There has been an increase in plastic waste in landfills over the past six years, partly due to a decrease in recycling rates. Even though Bags for Benches’ contributions make up only a tiny percentage, small initiatives like theirs help bring recycling back into people’s daily habits.
“We were just trying to mitigate the excess of plastic. We didn’t really care about the recognition. We knew the bench was going to come eventually, but that wasn’t our main goal,” said Bronshteyn.
With the success of their first campaign, Bags for Benches and the Environmental Commission have launched their second campaign, aiming to collect another thousand pounds of plastic.
“I mean, the second thousand pounds, two-thousand pounds, is a ton. That’s a ton of plastic that a very small group of a dozen of us have collected. And it’s more than just two or three people that are deciding, ‘hey, I want to collect some plastic bags.’ It’s literally hundreds of people who are bringing it into Calabasas High School, people who are bringing it into the school district, employees at the school district. You have seniors who come to the senior center to bring in their plastic,” said Cohan.
In honor of Earth Day, the bench will be unveiled this Friday at 4 pm in front of the CHS Media Center.
