EVANS CITY — Plastic is ubiquitous.

From water and pop bottles to shopping bags and bubble wrap, plastic is a facet of modern life. And while the recycling company will pick up hard plastics from residents' curbs, getting rid of those soft plastics — like cellophane and Ziploc bags — without tossing it in the garbage is a bit more challenging.

The Evans City Lions Club has stepped up to help find a solution and to turn the waste into something useful.

The Lions Club has begun collecting plastics to ship off to Trex, a Virginia-based company, and in turn receive benches made from recycled material.

Shelley Natali, secretary for the Evans City chapter, said the response to the program has been impressive. In the first week of collections, residents dropped off 84 pounds of plastics.

“It's just coming in leaps and bounds,” she said.

With collection stations for residents at local businesses, Natali said her garage, where she houses the plastics before shipping, is already getting full again. The Lions Club can ship its plastics to Trex at no cost to itself, and it's eligible to receive a bench every six months.

Natali said the businesses hosting public collection stations — Coffee Brake and P & B's Sweets and Eats — will have the first right of refusal to have a bench placed outside of their buildings. She added that even businesses which do not have public collection stations are contributing, for example by donating some shrink wrap sent to them on pallets.

“We're getting a lot of businesses that are stepping up to help out,” Natali said.

And while the first bench won't come for another half-year, Natali said this will be a long-term project to help out the borough and keep some plastic out of the landfill.

“As long as we can, we will,” she added.