Bridgehampton Wins Plastic Bag Challenge

Southampton Town’s Plastic Bag Education Task Force established the “A Greener Southampton—the Solution is in the Bag” campaign last year and as part of these educational efforts, the Town partnered with the Trex Company, the nation’s largest manufacturer of wood-alternative decking and railing, to sponsor the “Plastic Bag Challenge,” a recycling competition between local schools.

For six months, six participating schools, Bridgehampton UFSD, Our Lady of the Hamptons, Remsenburg-Speonk Elementary, Hampton Bays Middle School, Southampton Elementary School and Pierson Middle School in Sag Harbor, collected the equivalent of over 27,000 bags weighing 385 pounds.

The Trex Company determined this year’s winner based on school population, they divided the number of bags collected by the number of students in each school. Bridgehampton UFSD was declared the frontrunner of the challenge after turning in 5,296 plastic bags averaging around 39 per student and weighing 71.5 pounds, and is the winner of a Trex bench made entirely of the recycled bags. The other participating schools received birdhouses made of recycled plastic from Trex.