On September 4, 2018, twenty-two students from Northern Kentucky University’s (NKU) Orientation to Environmental Science Careers course taught by Dr. Kristy Hopfensperger participated in a field trip to the Campbell County Environmental Education Center to learn about careers in the Cooperative Extension Service that teach environmental education. While there, they learned how the Campbell County Extension Agent for Natural Resources and Environmental Management provides recycling programs to students to educate them about how their consumer decisions and actions affect the environment. As a culminating event, students collect plastic caps and have them recycled into benches for their schools.  The Campbell County Extension District Board sponsors the fee for conversion of the caps into a recycled content bench through Green Tree Plastics ABC (A Bench for Caps) program.

A few of the students that participated in the field trip are members of NKU’s Environmentally Concerned Organization of Students (ECOS). They asked me to speak to ten members of the group October 8, 2018 about recycling. Afterwards, the students led the effort to publicize the program and set up collection sites to supply a recycled bench to the campus community garden. Their sponsor, Dr. Kim Yates, requested that I speak to thirty-one students enrolled in NKU’s Elementary Science Teaching Methods course on November 14, 2019. Their idea was to supply recycled content toddler tables to the Early Learning Center on campus. In total, the two NKU groups collected 600 pounds of caps and provided one bench to the community garden on campus.  Two toddler picnic tables went to the Early Learning Center at NKU. Since they collected more than expected, an additional bench was created and donated to ReNewport, a community action group, for a Newport city park currently in development.   

Erin Carleton, NKU ECOS President, had these reflections about the project: “I think the project really brought our campus together and showed that we can make a difference. It also showed how recycling can be easy if we all chip in and help each other. My expectations were blown away when we received so many caps after summer, so many people also contacted us about how to start it themselves. It made me happy that people in our community wanted to continue this project for their own business or groups. I feel it really made an impact on the community.”  NKU’s ECOS group was recognized at the March 9, 2020 Campbell County Extension Council meeting as the 2019 Outstanding Extension Volunteers for Natural Resources and Environmental Management.  Since the Campbell County Extension Service began offering these recycling programs and opportunities in 2016, eight schools have recycled 4500 pounds of plastic waste into useful products.