Bags collected by Linn-Mar Elementary students.

Stacie Johnson, education coordinator for the Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency, has been working on recycling projects with students at Linn-Mar Elementary Schools. They’ve collected jeans and shoes to reuse and will be collecting batteries next month.

Their project for March was plastic bags. The bags do not go into the curbside recycling bins, but can be recycled by dropping them off at stores that collect them or at City Carton Recycling in Cedar Rapids. The students at the seven elementary schools and their families came through. Stacie went to collect the bags with a van, but had to rent a 10-foot U-Haul. The bags, along with plastic wrap from paper towels and toilet paper, weighed 360 pounds at City Carton.  At an average of 85 plastic bags per pound, Stacie noted that more than 30,000 bags were collected.

Stacie Johnson shows the truck filled with plastic bags collected by Linn-Mar Elementary students. (photos/Cindy Hadish)

She noted that while it’s somewhat eye-opening to see how many plastic bags people use, at least these bags will stay out of the landfill.