Repurposing with a purpose
We admire young leaders who take action to solve local environmental problems. Emily Smith, one of this year’s Green STEM scholarship recipients, prevented single-use plastic shopping bags from entering Schodack landfills and waterways. Here’s how she did it.
In a world mobbed by back and forth conflict over the state of the environment and the effects humans have on it, it can often seem easier to just forget about the whole thing. You’re just one person, right? In the grand scheme of things, your choices aren’t that important to the world around you… right? Wrong!
I, just like everyone else, am far from perfect when it comes to living a green lifestyle, but my most recent project has decreased my carbon footprint immensely, and the best part is that it’s easy to do.
During the winter of 2019, I was scrolling through Facebook when I saw some elderly women using plastic shopping bags to create sleeping mats for the homeless. It sparked a curiosity in me, so I decided to do some digging. I found a simple weaving method to create these mats, and the project soon began.
As I worked, I began to realize just how many bags it took to make one mat. FIVE HUNDRED! I reached out to the Schodack community, expecting a few bags to be dropped off at each collection location. Before I knew it, I was practically drowning in bags, doing hours of cutting and weaving a day just to keep up. The outpour of support and generous donations by members of the community were greatly appreciated yet slightly terrifying; terrifying because of how many bags I was receiving. At this time, the bag ban had not been put into place yet, and the plastic consumption of communities like mine was astronomical.
Before I knew it, approximately three and a half months had passed and I was officially out of bags. With no more bags to weave, I decided to call the project complete with a total of six mats. That is 3,000 plastic bags! The mats are durable and waterproof, and will be long-lasting and washable. All of my mats are now at the emergency shelter of Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless where they can be cleaned and reused as community members find themselves entering and exiting the homeless population.
This project has given me a new outlook on the world around us and just how easy it can be to make a change. I definitely did not save the world by eliminating 3,000 bags from the landfill, but I took a small step in the right direction. Whether it be a reusable straw, repurposing plastic, riding your bike to work, or anything in between, we are all given a daily choice to save the world just a little bit. It’s up to you whether or not you take it!