The Friends of Mahaska County Conservation has received a $2000 grant to buy park benches that are made from recycled plastic bags.  The grant comes from the Iowa Grocery Industry Association’s Build with Bags program.  Rodney Anderson with Friends of Mahaska County Conservation tells us where the new benches will go.

“We’re looking at between our memorial money and the grant, to buy benches for the Environmental Learning Center, the new one in Mahaska County, and at Caldwell Park.  And we’re looking at benches for the outside and the inside.”

According to the Iowa Grocery Industry Association, one bench represents about 10,600 bags that would have otherwise ended up in a landfill.