By Rowan Chetty, Co-Multimedia Editor
Inspired to make a difference amidst the growing global concern of pastic pollution, seniors and twin sisters Katie and Madie Przybylowski have collected more than 3,000 pounds of plastic for NexTrex over the last three years.
NexTrex, an organization focused on reducing plastic waste in communities, is hosting a plastic collection challenge in which teams that collect at least 1,000 pounds of soft film plastics and packaging in 12 months will win a Trex furniture bench. NexTrex recycles the plastic donations and remakes them into plastic products.
The Przybylowski siblings have been working with the NexTrex initiative since eighth grade and hope to make the T/E community greener.
“If we see trash on the ground, (we think), ‘That’s awful, let’s pick that up,’” Katie Przybylowski said. “We also PLOG, which is a mix of jogging and picking up trash.”
This year, environmental science teacher Amy Hawkins also expressed interest in helping reduce Conestoga’s plastic waste. An article about plastic pollution inspired Hawkins to reduce her plastic usage, and she joined the NexTrex initiative in November.
“It (the article) said there’s going to be more plastic in the ocean by weight than fish, and that kind of just stuck with me,” Hawkins said. “I started thinking about what small steps I could do just as an individual.”
When Hawkins went to enter Conestoga as a chapter for the challenge on the NexTrex website, she noticed that the Przybylowski sisters were already registered. After reaching out to them, Hawkins began working with the twins to increase donations from Conestoga students and staff.
“It’s a lot easier (working with Hawkins),” Katie Przybylowski said. “I think having that other person who also has a bunch of other students who help out is a lot of fun, and it’s helpful.”
Hawkins collects plastic donations from students in a bin outside of her classroom and drops off the donations at a Wegmans or ACME after weighing and submitting pictures of the bags to NexTrex. Key Club adviser Allison Long reached out to Hawkins asking to provide Key Club members with the opportunity to donate plastic to the NexTrex challenge for volunteer hours.
“That was another group of people that were doing something with plastic, but it wasn’t really widely publicized. The more people that know about it, I think we’ll get more plastics,” Hawkins said.
The challenge is set to end before Earth Day on April 22, but if participants do not reach their goal, they can restart collecting immediately after. Apart from aiming to collect 1,000 pounds of plastic for the challenge, Hawkins also hopes to reduce overall plastic usage in the community.
“This (initiative) is great and all, but the main goal would be to reduce the amount of plastics that we’re using,” Hawkins said. “My students will come in, and they’ll be like, ‘Whoa, I can’t believe how much we’ve collected already.’ And I think that’s a statement right there — they realize how much plastic we’re using on a daily basis.”
Rowan Chetty can be reached at [email protected].
