Jim Kelley Turns Plastic Waste into Memorial Benches Across Delaware
This article originally written by University of Delaware student, Abbie Markel.
Jim Kelley sees plastic wherever he goes, from the trash on beaches and streets to tiny particles that end up in our water supply. Kelley, originally from Northern California, was always into renewable energy and has 20 years of experience in the solar energy industry. Three years ago, he decided to shift his focus from the sun to the Earth and address the plastic waste that litters the planet.
Now, as the co-founder of Eco Plastic Products of Delaware (ECOP), Kelley turns grocery bags and jars and soda bottles into park benches and bicycle racks. His memorial benches made from recycled plastics can be found in parks around New Castle County. He hopes to one day open up an art gallery with pieces all made from recycled plastics.
From his home in Newark, Delaware, Kelley talks about how the simple practice of washing clothes can emit plastics into the environment, artwork made of recycled plastics, and ways to cut down on plastic consumption.
Q: What are some of the most popular recycled plastic products that you make?
A: People give us pretty much any plastic except for #3 plastics, which is polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, and is harder to process. We mostly collect plastic bags, milk jugs, bubble wrap, etc. We transform all of that plastic into usable particles or pellets and make products out of them. Our top four products right now are park benches, picnic tables, bike racks, and stop blocks for parking lots. Right now, we’re making a lot of boards for raised beds for gardeners. Garden beds are typically made out of wood that rots after a few years but I’m pretty sure ours will last nearly forever. I would say that’s our most popular product right now.
Q: What are some of the locations where your memorial benches can be found?
A: There’s quite a few of them in DelCastle Park in the Hockessin area. We also have some in Carousel Park, and quite a few in Glasgow Park in Newark. The county offers the option to residents who want a memorial, and then they refer them to us to make the benches. We’ve done about 25-30 of them so far.
Q: Have you made any memorial benches in honor of COVID-19 victims?
A: I’m not sure if there have been any for COVID victims, but it’s really kind of sad because we’ve been making a lot of them lately. We get an order for a bench with a name and a plaque. Sometimes I don’t want to know all the details, but I’m sure one or more of them have been for a COVID-19 victim.
Q: Do you have any items in your own home made from plastics?
A: We have a bench here, and we also have some art as well. We have started taking scraps of plastic and making pieces of art out of them. We actually have an art gallery that we were going to open before COVID hit. It serves the same objective as our other products. Instead of the plastic floating in the ocean or piling up in a landfill, it’s on someone’s wall. People are pretty intrigued by it. Leo Dodd, one of our manufacturers and our Artistic Director, actually entered his art into a competition in Westchester, Pennsylvania and he won an excellence award for a piece of plastic art.
Q: What do volunteers do at ECOP?
A: We have quite a few volunteers, about 10-15 before COVID. We hire lots of volunteers from challenged communities. Most of the work is separating plastics by what plastic number they are, and by color as well. Some of our volunteers also help to assemble finished products. We get a lot of volunteers and then separate them by skill level. Many of them have special needs and get paid to work here. We had one boy with special needs that volunteered for us and when he first came to us, we were told that he doesn’t talk, and he has anger issues. A year and a half later, he talks all the time and doesn’t have any anger issues. His parents told us that after three months he became a completely different person. I think that’s just a good story about our volunteers.
Q: Can you talk about some specific ways that plastics are impacting the environment?
A: The obvious effect is that there is plastic all over the ground everywhere you go. Some of the most remote beaches in the world are littered with plastic. The bigger issues are more unseen. Plastics in the ocean are affecting wildlife because the animals, particularly turtles and birds, mistake the plastic as food. One step further, there are some major health and environmental effects of microplastics. Microplastics enter the food chain by making their way into the ocean, the animals eat them, and then they end up in our food. Microplastics are everywhere, to the extent that the tiny polyester plastics in our clothes end up in the ocean when washing our clothes.
Q: What are some ways to cut down our plastic consumption?
A: First of all, there is a huge need in the community for more education on plastic waste to help individuals or businesses be more aware of what they do with the plastic they buy. For example, in California people can fill up their laundry detergent at the store instead of buying new plastic containers every time. Newark Natural Foods also makes an effort to sell products that aren’t packaged in heavy amounts of plastic. It’s definitely a mindset, and I think more change needs to happen on a legislative level. The plastic bag ban is great, but that is only a small fraction of the plastic that enters the world. It’s just going to take time and education to get people away from overly packaged items
