The City of Greensboro's Operation Bed Roll, in which Elon Law students are assisting, removes plastic bags from the waste stream and transforms them into bed rolls for the homeless.
The Environmental and Animal Law Society at the Elon University School of Law has launched an initiative in support of Operation Bed Roll, which collects and transforms plastic bags into sleeping mats for homeless residents who sleep on the ground in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Operation Bed Roll is a collaboration between The City of Greensboro’s Field Operations and Police departments designed to turn a problematic item into something positive.
Plastic bags, also known as “tanglers” have to be processed in a different facility than other recyclables. When placed in recycle bins other than those specifically for plastic bags, like the kind found outside grocery stores, the bags clog up recycling equipment causing recycling operations to be shut down multiple times a day.
Elon University and the City of Greensboro use the same recycling facility, which means plastic bags should not be placed in blue recycle bins on campus.
Elon Law student Michael Casterlow explains where the idea for plastic bag collection at Elon started.
“Many students carry their lunches in plastic bags and those bags end up in the trash,” he said. “So my primary goal was simply to find a way to get a receptacle in place to collect the plastic bags, but then I was presented with the amazing idea of Greensboro’s Operation Bed Roll. I figured this would be the perfect way to get the law school’s Environmental and Animal Law Society involved in community outreach.”
Casterlow and fellow EALS members collaborated with Elon’s Office of Sustainability to set up temporary bins for plastic bag collection and coordinate a time to turn all those bags into a bed roll. Clean plastic bags can be dropped off in the appropriate bins in the following locations: Elon School of Law, Belk Library (stairwell), Eco-Rep Office (Moseley) or outside the neighborhood offices of Colonnades, Global or Danieley.
It takes 500 to 700 bags to make one bed roll.
Students can take a study break and help assemble the bed roll from plastic bags on Wednesday, Dec. 7. Eco-Reps, Makers and the Library Green Team are collaborating to help provide in-person instructions periodically throughout the day. Free reusable bags will be available for anyone who helps.
“While this by no means solves homelessness or problems associated with single use bags, it is a way to inform people about how to properly dispose of plastic bags, remove them from the waste stream and repurpose them for something positive,” said Jessica Bilecki, assistant director for education and outreach in the Office of Sustainability.