SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Smith’s grocery stores invited customers to bring in their plastic shopping bags and other plastics that will eventually be recycled into park benches.

April has been designated Earth Month and to observe that Smith’s encouraged customers to return their thin-filter plastics which include grocery bags, bubble wrap, dry cleaning bags, and clean sandwich bags.

The stores will have bins to stuff with the plastics.

“Instead of plastic bags ending up in landfills or littering green spaces, we utilize innovative services to turn the material into plastic lumber for the construction of community benches and other items,” said Aubriana Martindale, Smith’s Corporate Affairs Manager. “Earth Month is a great catalyst for action and awareness. Instead of throwing out plastic shopping bags and other plastic items, we encourage our customers to deposit them in containers located in the vestibules of our stores and help us turn more bags into benches.”

Martindale said customers will get five fuel points for each plastic bag brought for a maximum of 50 points.

A news release said Smith’s recycled 39 million pounds of plastic from its stores last year and has committed to phasing out single-use plastic bags by 2025.