By Peter Sclafani, Staff Writer
Hillsborough elementary school students took a role in cleaning up the environment by recycling a kind of plastic that the Somerset County program does not collect.
The plastic bag initiative was started by Hillsborough resident Steve Berkowitz, who works at a plastics company. His intent was to spur students to stand against pollution while at the same time learning about recycling.
The idea came to Mr. Berkowitz when he learned the curbside pickup programdoes not accept plastic bags commonly used for groceries.
Most people do not know they have the ability to recycle these soft plastics, Mr. Berkowitz said.
Somerset County does not accept such soft plastics in its weekly recycle pick-ups because to reuse them they must be completely clean, Mr. Berkowitz said.
At first he started collecting from his friends and neighbors. He brings the plastic to his workplace, where it is recycled into garbage bags.
”People have a lot of interest in recycling,” he said. “It’s easy and it’s contagious.”
Mr. Berkowitz reached out in 2011to Auten Road math teacher Mary-Beth Hurley to start the project. Mr. Berkowitz expanded his collection network to Temple Beth-El and this year he reached out to the Hillsborough Elementary and Sunnymead and Woodfern elementary schools, all of which house kindergarten to third grades.
Third grade teacher Jen Hopson led the plastic bag initiative at Hillsborough Elementary.
”The kids love it,” she said. “They feel like they are making a difference.”
Klaudine Bessasparis, a third grade student in Ms. Hopson’s class, even got her grandmother to pitch in. “She’s going green,” she said.
Ms. Hopson’s class created a video to launch its recycling program schoolwide in April. The students were excited to be a part of something that involved the whole school, she said.
Ms. Hopson plans to keep the same level of enthusiasm for recycling going next year by holding an assembly or putting together another launch video.
The elementary schools have a friendly competition for which one will collect the most plastic. Woodfern and Hillsborough Elementary were in a close competition, collecting 238 and 250 pounds of plastic, respectively, or the equivalent of more than 37,000 bags in total.
According to Mr. Berkowitz, one soft-drink company buys about 30 million pounds of plastic per year, which it uses to package various products.
”Imagine, instead of making plastic from scratch, you reused what is already out there,” he said.
According to Mr. Berkowitz, if the nearly 500 bags of plastic collected from the two elementary schools were stretched to the thickness of a one-foot-wide plastic food wrap, it would cover a distance of more than 11 miles.
Another student in Ms. Hopson’s class, Caitlin Kazim, said the class was saving the world “one bag at a time.”
”I feel like we aren’t damaging the world,” said third grade student Emily Quagliato. “Instead of littering, we recycle.”

