When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, what was already a difficult life for homebound seniors across the country became even more difficult. The final days, or weeks, or months, for shut-ins can be dark and depressing, especially in winter months. Isolated from the community at-large, the realities of COVID-19 only exacerbated the problem.
Entrepreneur Patrick Simpson, of Alaska Plastic Recovery, has worked for much of the year with local advocacy groups like Cook Inletkeeper, Regroup, and Sustainable Seward to collect plastic for transformation into lumber as part of a recycling program funded by a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. Last Thursday, Simpson put samples of the finished project — a thick green chunk of synthetic lumber — in the hands of borough residents at a Kenai Peninsula College Showcase.