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lockportlegend.com life & arts
the Lockport Legend | January 25, 2018 | 23
Butler students experience recycling hands-on
Students turn 1,210
pounds of plastic
into benches for the
school playground
Submitted by Homer 33C
What do 1,210 pounds of
recycled plastic get you? In
the case of Butler School,
three heavy-duty benches.
Students and staff began
collecting plastic lids from
peanut butter jars, coffee
cans and mayonnaise jars last
March in the hope of having
them melted down and
turned into a single Buddy
Bench for their playground.
But when first-grade teacher
Jane Baar and media center
assistant Denise Yaeger arrived
at Green Tree Plastics,
LLC with two carloads of
plastic lids, they were shocked
to learn they had enough to
make three benches.
Students and staff embraced
the “A Bench for Caps
(ABC) Program” from the
beginning, dutifully bringing
in acceptable lids from home
each week and setting aside
lids from their school lunches.
The program is part of
Green Tree Plastics’ ABC
Promise Partnership, encouraging
students to learn more
about green living. At Butler
School, students not only
learned about the power of
recycling but the importance
of working together and caring
for one another.
They were told the benches
would serve as a place to sit
when they don’t have a friend
to play with at recess, encouraging
others to invite them to
join them in a game or activity.
The Butler PTO helped
make the project come to
fruition, contributing the
$250 needed to make the first
bench. The school paid for
the second bench; an anonymous
donor paid for the third
bench.
Students returned to school Jan. 8 to find three Buddy Benches made from 1,210 pounds
of plastic they had collected. Photos submitted
Butler School media center assistant Denise Yaeger (left) and first-grade teacher Jane Baar
delivered 1,210 pounds of plastic caps to Green Tree Plastics, LLC in December
The plastic caps collected at the school filled three
containers.
Butler School students take a seat on and around the three
Buddy Benches made from recycled caps.
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