Local pharmacies such as East Side Pharmacy, Harps Pharmacy, John’s Pharmacy, Key Drugs, Kroger Pharmacy, Saint Francis Pharmacy and Southeast Pharmacy know the value of recycling. Whether it involves the community, the global environment, or extending a helping hand to lift youth out of the cycle of bad decisions — these community businesses are willing to help.
Keith Shelton, the president of the Community Liaison Council to the W.E. Sears Youth Center in Poplar Bluff, started an initiative to collect plastic bottle caps from local pharmacies. In turn, these bottle caps can be recycled into benches and sold to raise funds for extracurricular activities and items the state of Missouri cannot provide for the W.E. Sears Youth Center.
“The youth help collect the bottle caps, sort and load them and then reap the benefits of their work,” Shelton said. “As they (youth) work together, they learn valuable lessons in teamwork, recycling, community involvement and finances.”
Shelton said during the first recycling effort, the youth teams collected 2,500 pounds of bottle caps. Next, the caps were sorted and placed in 55-gallon bags and then loaded onto a 15-foot box trailer to be delivered to Green Plastics, located in Indiana.
“From that first effort, they brought back 10 benches to be sold,” Shelton said. “Since that time, we have collected caps and sold over 50 benches.”
A 200-pound solid plastic bench requires 250 pounds of bottle caps. After the caps are processed and the benches built at Green Plastics, they are purchased by the Community Liaison Council and then sold locally.
“Through this ongoing project, we are touching the lives of these young men, helping them see value in a job well done as well as helping protect our environment and serving our community. Hopefully, as these young men move forward in life, they will take these lessons with them and be productive citizens,” Shelton shared.
According to Mike Burchard, the facility manager of the W.E. Sears Youth Center, the bottle cap program provides important programming such as Christmas presents and Christmas parties for the youth there.
“We have several businesses that collect these bottle caps for us,” Burchard said during an on-site interview. “And we go every week to each of those businesses and pick up those bottle caps. From there, we clean each bottle cap and get them ready to be delivered to Green Plastics.”
The process of collecting, organizing, sorting and cleaning the bottle caps is not an easy task.
“It’s hard work,” Burchard commented. “You have to go through the entire process. And that’s teaching them (youth) to just follow through.”
Burchard added that many of those same park benches are already within the community.
“Our youth can see those benches throughout the community and it’s pretty neat for them to be able to see that and to know that they are contributing.”
SEARS assistant facility manager Rodney Kennedy said a minimum of three to four hours a week are spent just collecting the bottle caps. The cleaning process is much more extensive and takes over eight hours.
“It’s a job, for sure,” he said.
However, “when they see those benches (they) know that even though they didn’t necessarily build that bench, they did everything up to that point to get it there.”
The bottle cap program doesn’t just serve as an ecological benefit, it also gives youth a sense of community.
“It gives them a sense of feeling what it is to give back to your community and to be a positive influence,” Burchard reflected. “It gives them an extra step when they are out of here because the community does see that these are good kids that have just made some bad choices.”
From the community impact to the individual impact, the bottle caps to benches program helps to create community mindfulness within the minds of the youth.
“They are being able to see themselves within that bench as well and knowing they had something to do with it, they had a part of it,” Burchard said. “It’s just a full circle type of moment for them.”
Another goal of the program is to help build bridges between volunteerism and community awareness.
“The hope is that because our kids come from all over, they go back into their communities and continue their work,” Burchard commented. “They will pull over and pick up trash, or see those volunteer opportunities and are more apt to do it.”
The benches can be seen all over the Poplar Bluff area. Shelton said the goal is to be able to see these benches in public parks and other areas of the community.
If you or your organization is interested in purchasing benches, please contact Keith Shelton at 573-429-228.