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Centerville seeks elimination of plastic bags from trash

CENTERVILLE, Ohio — The city of Centerville is starting a new initiative to keep plastic bags out of landfills and recycling bins and now the city wants you to know why it’s important and how you can get involved.

City officials said they want any of your old plastic grocery bags that are not being used in your home instead of putting them in the garbage or recycling bin.

Kate Bostdorff, Centerville’s Communication Director, said, “Recycling bags are the biggest problem in our recycling bins.”

She said she took a tour of Rumpke and found that plastic bags are causing major issues with recycling systems.

“Truly by hand, they are trying to pull out the plastic bags and they’re tanglers for the machines. They can cause them to break,” Bostdorff said. “They take a long time to break down in landfills.”

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Plastic bags can sometimes take more than 500 years to decompose, which is part of the reason why the Sustainable Centerville Committee recommended city council take a look at reducing the use of plastic bags.

Bostdorff said, “We did a clean up of Cornerstone Park in November and learned there were tons of plastic bags that was the biggest culprit.”

The city of Centerville is working with Trex Community Recycling Program to collect a number of items list plastic grocery bags, clean Ziploc bags and cereal box liners and more.

“It is to collect 500 pounds of plastic bags and film,” Bostdorff said.

There are several locations in Centerville that you can go to turn in plastic bags:

· Woodbourne Library in Washington Twp.

· Centerville’s Municipal Building

· Centerville/Washington Park Activity Center

· Two different Kroger locations

Bostdorff said reaching 500 pounds is a big goal, but she believes it can be done. “Just even among employees in the city building in the first couple of weeks, we collected 10 pounds, so I am feeling good.”

If the city can reach 500 pounds of plastic, Trex will then donate a recycled bench to the city, which will then be put into one of the city’s parks.

Kayla Courvell

Kayla Courvell

I was born and raised in a small town just north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and decided as a child I was going to be a news reporter.

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