CROSS LANES, W.Va. — Millions of empty plastic water bottles are starting to accumulate in West Virginia. Emily Harrell, a member of Venturing Crew 68, in Cross Lanes worried that would be a serious issue.
“I have always been very environmentally focused and it came to my attention we’ve had millions of bottle handed out and that really adds up,” she said.
Emily said the mission of the Venturing Program, a branch of the Boy Scouts of America, is to recognize problems in the community and work on ways to solve them. Her solution was to pull together the members of her crew and start a drive to recover as many of those bottles as possible and deliver them to a proper recycling location.
“Cross Lanes specifically doesn’t have a recycling program, but there is a recycling plant at Slack Street,” she said. “We can get the word out, collect them and deliver them there and keep them out of the landfill.”
The Venturing Crew is also inviting the local Boy Scout Troop with which they are affiliated to join the effort. They’ll be accepting the plastic bottles at Cross Lanes United Methodist Church for the duration of the water emergency.
“Plastic water bottles, lids are fine, preferably in bags,” she said. “The best would be to crush them, but we can do that. Just bring them and we’ll take care of the rest.”