This winter, the Riordan Armor Robotics team has organized a drive to collect and recycle soft plastics. Special recycling bins for soft plastics, such as plastic grocery bags and cling film, have popped up around campus.
“One of the core principles of being a competitive robotics team under the organization we compete under is to really advance STEM outreach into our community,” said Jenny Stevens, the Robotics team’s head coach.
The Riordan Robotics team competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition every year, and this year the theme of the competition is “REEFSCAPE,” focusing on protecting marine ecosystems from the effects of climate change, which ties back to the drive.
“The only thing that we produce in this world, to try and make our lives better, that cannot be broken down into its original chemical constituencies is plastic,” Micheal O’Brien, who teaches AP Environmental Sciences, said.
Plastic pollution has continued to be a prominent symbol of climate change, as images of steaming landfills and turtles choked with plastic dominate TV screens and the public consciousness. And soft plastic, which is significantly harder to recycle than rigid plastics, is often not collected in roadside recycling programs. The robotics team wanted to raise awareness about soft plastic recycling and encourage people to think more about the waste in their daily lives.
Stevens said her students came up with the idea for the drive and organized it, doing their own research and talking to the school’s administration to make the drive happen.
Though the process of soft plastic recycling is complicated, the process of actually setting up the drive at school was relatively simple.
“It was actually really easy, we just had to register on their website and then they shipped us basically everything we needed except the trash bags to carry everything,” said Juliana Murguz ’25, one of the Robotics team’s co-captains.
They organized through a company called NexTrex, which manufactures decking and outdoor goods from recycled plastic, and runs drives to collect those plastics in schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods around the country.
“Education and leading by example are the best way to get people to change their behavior,” said O’Brien.
They’re hoping the drive will help bring awareness to soft plastic recycling and get people to think more critically about the waste they produce.
Murguz added, “Our goal weight is a thousand pounds, but it’s not so much about the number as much as it is about making an impact and keeping soft plastics from getting into landfills.”
