By Brogan Ludwig, 

Rick Schara 

West Central Initiative

It’s one o’clock on an April Tuesday afternoon in Vergas, and local Lions Club members gather in a neighborhood garage. It’s a party-like atmosphere, laughing, chatting, as a dozen Lions grab bulging plastic garbage bags from truck beds and car trunks that just arrived, walking them into the garage where they toss them onto a growing pile.

Other Lions are hard at work at two tables, opening each garbage bag and spilling out its content: plastic bags.  

Plastic bags that contain plastic bags. Thousands collected from the community.  Thousands that need to be inspected and cleaned, ready to be recycled. 

And thousands saved from the landfill. 

Community recycling 

Across the region, Lions Clubs have been participating in an exciting recycling program. Jake Jacoby and Dennis Martinson organized the event for the Vergas chapter as part of the NexTrex Recycling Challenge. This program is run by Trex Recycling, which sponsors local community efforts to recycle. For every 1,000 pounds of recycled plastic, Trex Recycling donates a bench to the community.  

“That’s our goal—to build our community and make it more vibrant,” Jake said. “Every community has people that we can help.” 

Vergas has two of these benches: one at the liquor store and the other at the community center. At the recent event, the Vergas Lions Club sought to sort and prepare another 1,000 pounds of household plastics for a new bench at the pickleball court.

The environment is one of the pillars of Lions International. By participating in this recycling challenge, Lions Clubs serve toward a more sustainable future while also giving back to their communities.

The challenge

At the recycling event in Vergas, Lions worked on sorting and preparing the plastic to properly recycle it. Dennis explained the process:  

“They’re cutting labels and staples off,” he said. “For example, you can recycle a water softener salt bag. But there’s a handle, so you need to remove the staples off the handle before it can go in. You also can’t have any tape. And if it had food in it, it needs to be cleaned because otherwise it makes a mess.” 

Signs are above the drop-off sites that explain what can and can’t be recycled for this initiative. 

Once Lions sort the 1,000 pounds of soft film plastic and packaging, removing all labels and materials that can’t be recycled, they take the material to a different site.  

And where does this plastic go once it’s ready for recycling? 

Service food

How did Service Food in Fergus Falls become the collection point for the Lions recycling effort? Kevin King, Service Food’s general manager, said it was a collaborative effort between grocery distributors, Trex Recycling, and the Lions. 

“The Lions approached us. And because the regular grocery delivery truck can take those cleaned and weighed plastic bags back to the Twin Cities, it was an easy decision to make,” he said. “The Lions Clubs are always great to work with. We’re kind of the middle-man for this program, and we had room on the loading dock for it. We do a lot of recycling in our store, including collecting our own plastic bags and cardboard that another organization picks up as a fundraiser.” 

King said there are numerous clubs in the area who use Service Food as the drop-off site. 

A community effort 

This effort by the Vergas Lions Club serves as a model for other community-driven efforts. Recycling is sustainable for the climate, and participation in this challenge generates community discussion about other sustainable practices for which a city can strive.