Heidi Gilder, a student in the 
Hopkins school district, has realized her goal of collecting enough plastic caps and lids to make a bench that will be donated to a Hopkins elementary.
Gilder led the charge for a Girl Scout project to recycle plastic caps. She appeared last June before the Dorr Township Board to talk about the “Caps for a Cause” effort in which she has encouraged people to drop off plastic caps and lids at bins at Dick’s Market, the Dorr and Hopkins libraries, the CD store in Hopkins and Perrigo in Allegan.
Her goal was 400 pounds to fill 80 buckets of the materials and raising about $200 to help pay for turning the plastic into a bench.
PHOTO: Heidi Gilder shows off the bench made of recycled caps and lids.
Thank you to everyone who donated caps, pop cans, craft materials and your support to Heidi’s project. She ended up with 476 pounds of plastic caps when she arrived at Green Tree Plastics in Evansville IN last Friday. The extra 76 pounds were put on account for Dorr Township Library, as they are starting to collect caps for a bench as well. That’s 476 pounds of plastic Heidi kept out of the local landfill with your help. She also raised around $420 for the project – thank you for your encouragement there also!
Her message behind the project is to encourage everyone to keep plastic out of landfills by recycling. She will be checking shortly to see if the recycling rates in Hopkins, Wayland, and Dorr townships have increased since she started spreading the word last January. To get your curbside recycling bin for single-stream recycling, call Ben Williams – Allegan County Recycling Coordinator – at 269-686-4459.
Lisa Gilder
Leader, Girl Scout troop 30199