WILMINGTON — In honor of Earth Month, Gov. John Carney joined Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Shawn Garvin on Thursday to tour a facility in Wilmington where Delaware State Parks will have 15 benches made from excess plastic bags.

In 2020, the DNREC Division of Parks and Recreation converted its plastic carry-in/carryout bags at Delaware State Parks to corn and paper bags. Left with an excess of plastic bags, the division worked with Eco Plastic Products of Delaware, a nonprofit organization in Wilmington, to have them turned into benches for Delaware State Parks.

Each bench will be made of 127 pounds of plastic bags — around 30,000 bags. The excess plastic bags weighed about 2,000 pounds, the equivalent of about 450,000 plastic bags and enough to produce 15 benches for the parks.

The benches will be placed throughout Delaware State Parks with informational plaques about the benches and the division’s Carry In-Carry Out Trash-Free Parks Program.

Carry In-Carry Out, which was implemented in Delaware State Parks in 1994, asks visitors to take their trash with them when they leave, reducing the strain on limited resources and increasing the beauty of the parks.

The corn and paper bags now used in state parks are available to help visitors participate in the program, which promotes recycling and has saved Delaware State Parks millions of dollars. It also helps keep the parks cleaner for all visitors.