GR veteran gets ramp made from recycled plastic bags

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Five local veterans will soon have more accessible homes thanks to a partnership between SpartanNash and Kent County nonprofit Home Repair Services.

“Our work is to strengthen anybody who’s vulnerable and a homeowner here in Kent County,” said Joel Ruiter, executive director of Home Repair Services. “We express the work in a variety of ways. Some of it is to make repairs to people’s homes. Some of it is to provide these ramps and extra modifications.”

Volunteers from both the nonprofit and SpartanNash spent part of Tuesday morning building a ramp at the home of a Grand Rapids veteran.

“Partnerships like this are incredible and so needed,” Ruiter said. “As a nonprofit, we have to raise resources to do this kind of work.”

The ramps are not only helping veterans but the environment as well. They’re made from recycled plastic bags collected at SpartanNash stores.

“We’ve all got bags filled with plastic bags in our homes and we’re not sure what to do with it and a lot of times local recycling plants can’t take those. They clog up the system, so we want them to bring them back to our Family Fare, D&W, Forest Hills Foods retail stores and recycle them,” said Courtney Van Gilder, manager of environmental, social and governance and community engagement at SpartanNash.

The grocery retailer partners with a company called Trex, which turns the bags into high-quality composite deck material used in decks all across the country. Trex donated enough material for Home Repair Services to build approximately 10 ramps, five of which will be in collaboration with SpartanNash.

“SpartanNash is passionate about supporting our communities, especially our heroes who have supported us,” Van Gilder said. “So we’re so excited to give back to a local veteran in need by providing a ramp where they can be more accessible, they can get in and out of their home, especially as the weather is getting nicer.”

It takes approximately 157,500 recycled plastic bags to manufacture each ramp. Due to the higher cost of the composite material, a ramp would typically cost a homeowner around $8,000 if they paid out of pocket to have one built. The ramps don’t need to be treated like standard wood and last much longer.

“Just seeing clients come out of their home and make that roll down the ramp for the first time and just to enjoy the sunshine perhaps for the first time in over a year … to feel that and to interact with their neighbors and know that they can do that safely and consistently, it’s just a real blessing. It’s what energizes us to keep going and do this fine work,” Ruiter said.

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