Build with Bags grant contributes bench in park

The Fairfield Farmers? Market saw a need: more benches and more trash cans in Howard Park, and the Build with Bags program came to the rescue.

The Build with Bags program is a cooperative effort of the Iowa Grocery Industry Association, Keep Iowa Beautiful, Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Metro Waste Authority aimed at demonstrating how Iowa grocers could help reduce the environmental impact of shopping bags.

The goal of the group is to provide an effective alternative to plastic bag bans and increase the use of reusable bags. The group hoped to double the number of plastic bags recycled during the next 24 months and administer a grant program to aid parks and schools in purchasing products made of recycled plastic bags

Cary Spray, a manager of the Fairfield Farmers? Market, applied for and received the IGIA grant funding aimed at providing funding to parks for purchasing equipment made of recycled plastic. She then researched the recycled materials and found a company based in Iowa Falls, offering a number of alternatives for park use. Selections were made, and the finished products were picked up. The new equipment was placed in Howard Park and used during the farmers? market Saturday.

The Fairfield Farmers? Market is held from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays and 3-6 p.m. Wednesdays through October in Howard Park.