Mary Whitfill

Features Editor

Coppell’s “Play Green” project was recently awarded funding to furnish Coppell’s public parks with permanent recycling receptacles as well as to purchase more portable recycling containers for special city events.

With these containers, park users will be able to recycle the objects most commonly found on park trails – water bottles and cans. The containers will be paid for by a Solid Waste Implementation Project grant from the North Central Texas Council of Governments and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The grant, for just under $15,000 will provided enough funding for 17 new trash containers scattered along trails and throughout the parks. The containers have been placed at Andy Brown East and West as well as the Kid Country playground and trail system. The new cans have been marked with “Coppell Recycles Bottles and Cans” as well as a specially shaped opening to minimize the accidental addition of non-recyclables. The recyclable cans are placed next to pre-existing trash cans.

Coppell’s efforts to go green in a park setting first began in 2006 with containers for recyclables on the baseball and soccer fields at Wagon Wheel and MacArthur parks.  The original grant was awarded through “Run, Refresh, Recycle” project, also funded through a Solid Waste Implementation Project.

The “Play Green” project has given Coppell the opportunity to enhance its current recycling programs and aims to encourage the practice of recycling in all settings throughout Coppell.