Obaggo returned this past weekend for our second annual volunteer effort as the "plastic bag recycling crew" for the Head of the Charles Regatta (HOCR).
If you've never been, the HOCR is a spectacular event on the Charles River in Boston, with over 11,000 athletes rowing over 1,900 boats and competing in over 60 events. This year the weather was amazing!
Obaggo worked with Courtney Forrester's (pictured right) Sustainability crew, a large group dedicated to ensuring that the waste generated by the teams, vendors, and the one quarter million attendees is properly recycled, composted, or disposed of.
Obaggo's job was to collect as much of the plastic film as possible, and ensure that it gets recycled.
The main sources of plastic film were from the 2,000 volunteer jackets distributed (each in a bag), the food vendors (e.g., hot dog bags, ice bags, case-wrap over beverage bottles, etc.).
Plastic film at an event like this can be found just about everywhere. We collected the pallette-wrap, which is Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE), good for recycling.
When necessary, we "dumpster dove" for the good clean and dry recyclable plastic film. Volunteers, anyone?
Even the boats themselves were a big source of plastic. Many of the race boat manufacturers showed-up with their boats wrapped in gigantic plastic bags.
Up to 5 pounds of nice, clean, LDPE per bag.
Some boat bags were 30 feet long.
Obaggo placed special recycling bins in a number of locations around the event. Sustainability Crew members ensured that attendees to the event put the right things in the right bins.
Next to the Obaggo table, some passers-by had fun with the disks!
Overall, a pretty good haul. We collected many thousands of pieces of plastic (about 100 pounds). We had two cars full of bags-of-bags.
Until Obaggo's commercially-sized unit is available, we found someone else who would ensure the plastic film got recycled.
The local supermarket chain, Market Basket, agreed to take the plastic bags and wraps from the event.
We dropped the plastic film off at the same place that the retail store drop-off bin material eventually gets taken, at the supermarket distribution center, this one in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.
The plastic film will be compressed into bales, added to this pile, and then shipped off to TREX, of Winchester, Virginia, where they will be made into outdoor decking products.
The Obaggo team, making our rounds!
Obaggo is dedicated to developing innovative solutions for recycling plastic bags and packaging film, the fastest growing type of packaging material.
Our ultimate goal is to enable the recycling of plastic bags and packaging film in the comfort of your home, and in the convenience of your curbside bin.
We don't want you to have to do all that extra work we just did!
Please visit our crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, and learn more about how Obaggo's innovation works.
Thanks so much for all you do to recycle plastic!
Dave New, founder
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