Skip To Main Content

OALC and 279Online staff earn free park bench with their recycling efforts

OALC and 279Online staff earn free park bench with their recycling efforts

Staff members at the Osseo Area Learning Center (OALC) and 279Online have recently taken an active approach to championing recycling efforts, earning them a free park bench to be placed on site at the OALC. 

The effort was led by Jesse Huff-Larson, the 279Online attendance education support professional, who wrote a Hennepin County Recycling Grant in Feb. 2023. This allowed the OALC to create displays of recyclables and signage at recycling stations throughout the building, promote recycling facts through the TVs in the commons area, create table tents for the tables during lunchtime, host a recycling exploratory for scholars with teacher Beth Demerest and purchase compost bins to use kitchen scraps to make compost soil to add to a garden on site. As a result, the school has seen an extra two bags of recycling a day. 

“We are trying to instill the recycling mindset in kids going forward so they can go out into the world and teach the world to do better,” Huff-Larson said.  

In Feb. 2024, the school staff started participating in the Trex company’s NexTrex Recycling program, which gives schools a free Trex bench when they collect and recycle 1,000 lbs. (or 81,000) plastic bags within one year. The OALC and 279Online staff reached the goal a month early. 

The bench will be placed in the butterfly garden that was created during the 2023-24 school year thanks to donations from the Maple Grove Lions Club and site staff. The garden was created to supply staff a teaching opportunity to use as they see fit, provide enjoyment of the beauty of the flowers and to give butterflies a place to get food.

The OALC and 279Online staff will continue collecting plastic bags, hoping to earn a second bench to be placed in the garden. They would like to challenge every district school to sign up and get going on collecting plastic bags to earn their own bench! Learn more on the NexTrex Recycling Challenge website.