WILMINGTON, N.C. — A new coastal conscious waste and recycling service in Wilmington is gaining traction. It’s a collection service that turns plastics into art and even saves the sea turtles.
What You Need To Know
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 helps keep recycling local instead of having to send it elsewhere
A 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
This new program is called Turtle Trash. It was started by Brice Bennett and Kelsey Smart in July. Together, they collect, shred, melt and then turn used plastics into coasters, cups, bowls and more.
“So this is an extra recycling program that we do,” Barnett said. “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.”
It’s an idea that was born while working for a waste and recycling company and seeing the shortfalls of basic recycling.
“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. “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. 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.”
If that wasn’t enough, a portion of the profits from sales of their sustainable products will directly benefit sea turtles through the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, the Wrightsville Beach Sea Turtle Project and the Pleasure Island Sea Turtle Project in Carolina Beach.
While there’s always so much more that can be done to help the environment, this team is happy with its contributions.
Turtle Trash plans to expand its operation from making coasters and cups to making larger objects, such as large pots for plants and even furniture. Members are also planning on starting an education initiative and speaking with students and New Hanover County Schools.
Turtle Trash currently serves homes in the South Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach area. If you would like to learn more about its services you can visit its website.