Grocery Store Garbage Recycled Into Dog Park Equipment At South Mountain Reservation

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Some new equipment at a dog park in Essex County has a unique claim to fame: it’s built from more than 4.6 tons of plastic collected from local supermarkets.

Earlier this week, the ribbon was cut on a new dog park at the South Mountain Dog Park in Maplewood and Millburn.

The dedication of the equipment caps off a year-long flexible film recycling pilot program created by ShopRite that collected more than 4.6 tons of hard-to-recycle flexible film packaging from customers at stores in Newark, Bloomfield, Livingston, Plainfield and Stirling.

The pilot program encouraged customers to recycle hard-to-recycle packaging – such as potato chip bags, pet food and treat packs and detergent pouches – via dedicated collection kiosks at five ShopRite locations in New Jersey.

The program was launched in collaboration with ShopRite, P&G, Purina, Campbell’s Snacks and TerraCycle.

In all, more than 9,125 pounds of flexible plastic were collected and processed by TerraCycle into raw materials used to manufacture new, durable dog park equipment.

The result? Tons of space saved in landfills and a new dog park for local pet owners.

“Not only will this contribute to the dog park, but it removes recyclable materials from our waste stream and demonstrates what useful second life products can be created,” Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. said.

• See Related: This New Jersey Playground Is Made From Recycled Toothbrushes

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