Fairmont Community Teams Up to Collect Plastic Waste and Promote Sustainability

Mon Power and East Fairmont High School participate together in nationwide NexTrex challenge

FAIRMONT, W.Va., Nov. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- For the second year in a row, FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) subsidiary Mon Power is teaming with East Fairmont High School to collect plastic waste, including items like bubble wrap, bread bags and shipping envelopes, as part of the nationwide NexTrex challenge to promote sustainability within communities across the United States.

Watch a video about Mon Power's collection efforts with East Fairmont High School.

Over the next year, Mon Power employees and East Fairmont students are tasked with collecting 1,000 pounds of plastic. Mon Power employees have already begun gathering plastic waste from their offices, warehouses, service centers and regulated power plants. The collected plastic materials are sent to a NexTrex processing facility, where they are transformed into composite decking materials that provide a durable and eco-friendly alternative to traditional building materials.

Doc Garrett, environmental technician at FirstEnergy: "Participating in different challenges run by NexTrex gets our community and our employees involved with a common goal of preventing tons of recyclable and reusable plastic from going to the landfill. A lot of supplies shipped to our facilities are wrapped in the type of plastic we can collect and recycle."

Members of the public can participate in the challenge by dropping off plastic waste at the designated bins set up inside the main entrances of the Mon Power headquarters building in Fairmont and its contact center just down the road.

Visit the NexTrex website for a list of acceptable plastic waste items.

This endeavor comes on the heels of Mon Power completing NexTrex's recent community challenge, where employees collected more than 500 pounds of plastic at its Harrison Power Station and office buildings over the past six months.

In recognition of Mon Power's efforts, NexTrex awarded the company with a bench made of recycled plastic. Employees will place the bench near a community garden they are planning to plant this coming spring at the Bartlett House, a homeless shelter in Morgantown.

Your organization can enter a NexTrex challenge by visiting: bit.ly/4631bUc

This is just one of the many initiatives organized and implemented by FirstEnergy's Green Teams, groups of employee volunteers committed to supporting environmental initiatives across the company's six-state footprint. The teams also devote their time and resources to programs like tree-planting events, electronics recycling and beach cleanups.

Mon Power serves about 395,000 customers in 34 West Virginia counties. Follow Mon Power at mon-power.com, on X, formerly known as Twitter, @MonPowerWV, and on Facebook at facebook.com/MonPowerWV.

FirstEnergy is dedicated to integrity, safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies form one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. The company's transmission subsidiaries operate approximately 24,000 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Follow FirstEnergy online at firstenergycorp.com and on X @FirstEnergyCorp.

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SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.