A lot of times that recycling is shipped elsewhere to process, so we were just trying to keep everything circular and here and keep everything local to Wilmington.” “You know a lot of people, they throw their recycling out, and they just kind of they wash themselves of it and they consider it handled. “You know, every other week we would go and pick up people’s plastic, and there’s just so much of it in the bins, and we wanted to find a way that we could actually keep the recycling local,” Barnett said. It’s an idea that was born while working for a waste and recycling company and seeing the shortfalls of basic recycling. Some coasters that were made from used plastics by the Turtle Trash team. “And we have people collect bottletops, and we collect them off of their front porches here, and then we’ll take them back to our facility and sort them, and then we’ll put them into an injection machine to make repurposed products.” “So this is an extra recycling program that we do,” Barnett said. Together, they collect, shred, melt and then turn used plastics into coasters, cups, bowls and more. It was started by Brice Bennett and Kelsey Smart in July.

It helps keep recycling local instead of having to send it elsewhereĪ portion of the profits from selling the repurposed plastics goes toward the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, Wrightsville Beach Sea Turtle Project and the Carolina Beach Sea Turtle Project

Turtle Trash is a recycling program that takes shreds and melts used plastics and turns them into coasters, cups, bowls, and eventually bigger pieces such as large pots for plants and even pieces of furniture It’s a collection service that turns plastics into art and even saves the sea turtles. A new coastal conscious waste and recycling service in Wilmington is gaining traction.

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