Connie McMullin, left, and Beth Rogers pack Styrofoam items Friday as part of a recycling project at Woodcrest Villa Retirement Community that has collected 5 tons of foam products.
Connie McMullin, front left, and Beth Rogers hold Styrofoam items, while Dart Container's Jerry Rousseau, back left, holds items made from recycled Styrofoam like picture frames and clipboards. Nelson Kling, Woodcrest Villa Retirement Community CEO, is also pictured.
For a long time, Beth Rogers sought a responsible solution to simply throwing expanded polystyrene foam — better known by its trademark name, Styrofoam — into landfills.
"Wouldn't it be wonderful if all those takeout containers could be taken out of the waste stream and repurposed?" she wondered.
Rogers found the answer. She began to "reclaim" Styrofoam.
Her passion for sustainable living has helped the residents of Woodcrest Villa Retirement Community, where she lives, become advocates of the environment.
Together they have collected a total of 10,000 pounds — or 5 tons — of clean used dinnerware and packing material.
Rogers, 82, celebrated this milestone with a reception Friday afternoon at Bluebird Commons in Woodcrest Villa, attended by her team of 11 volunteers, residents and staff members of the retirement community.
For her efforts, Rogers received the Treasured Volunteer Award from the retirement community and a recognition plaque from Dart Container, a local provider of food-services packaging solutions.
"She told me we are celebrating this milestone, but the effort keeps going," chief executive officer Nelson Kling said.
"We are going to keep at it until we collect 20 tons," Kling said with a chuckle.
Rogers began the project in 2003 with the help of friend and fellow resident Connie McMullin.
The duo partnered with Dart Container, in Leola, which accepts post-consumer polystyrene foam from the public and recycles it into other usable products.
"Connie and I bought the plastic bins and the liner bags that we put in them to collect the items from the residents," Rogers said.
They also set up large boxes in storage rooms where the Styrofoam was packed and kept until it was carted away.
"We asked the residents to wash and dry the Styrofoam items before they are put in the bins," McMullin said.
Rogers said they kept track of the amounts collected in a small notebook.
"When we started we weren't looking to set a record, but before we knew it, we had collected 10,000 pounds," Rogers said.
McMullin, 73, was the official driver for the operation. Their first delivery consisted of 12 pounds of Styrofoam.
"Shipments increased steadily over the years. Now the average delivery is 55 pounds every three weeks," McMullin said.
"We are in it for the long haul," Rogers said. "I am not quitting."
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