What would you do with 1,500 pounds of plastic? Jessica Shade, a registered nurse at Essentia Health's Cancer Center in Duluth, saw an opportunity.

Jessica has always been a steward of the environment and has a passion for reducing medical waste. In March, she introduced the entire Cancer Center to a sustainability program, called NexTrex, which turns plastic film waste into outdoor furniture.

Every couple of weeks, Jessica and her colleagues fill up large recycling bags with discarded plastic film.

The team then delivers the bags to a local NexTrex recycling partner site. In Minnesota, Cub Foods - Duluth is one of many partners. Cub intakes and houses the bags until they’re transported to a manufacturing plant to be made into outdoor furniture and other living products.

Since she started the program, Jessica and her teammates have collected more than 1,500 pounds of plastic film — and are still counting.

“We go through an astronomical amount of plastic film daily,” says Jessica. “A 55-gallon bag filled with plastic weighs about 10 pounds. We fill up more than five big bags on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

“Our Environmental Services team has noticed the impact of the program, too. They are removing less and less trash from our facility.”

NexTrex gives out rewards for the more plastic you can collect. For every 500 pounds collected in a six-month period, NexTrex gives you a bench. Jessica and her colleagues have already received two benches, which sit in the Essentia Health-Duluth Ambulatory Infusion Center lobby.

“The benches were dedicated to our patients,” adds Jessica. “They get excited to hear about the sustainable initiatives we’re doing.”

To read this original story and more news, follow this link to the Essentia News website.