Recycling bins for local schools have been delayed, but they’re still coming.

The Bay Area Recycling Team, a leadership group, sponsored by the Ford Family Foundation, is promoting recycling in the area by placing special bins at a number of area schools.

Made with plastic corrugate and decorated with an image of the Cape Arago Lighthouse and blue skies, the bins are intended to inspire children to recycle their juice cans and water bottles.

Vicki Wiese, a member of the team, said 50 bins will be installed at Coos Bay and North Bend high schools and middle schools, along with the Pony Village Mall and The Mill Casino-Hotel, in early October, or as soon as the bins arrive.

Organizers intended to install the bins when school started, but delays in the design process made them miss their deadline, Wiese said.

“They’ll still be in the schools, they’ll just be in the schools later than we anticipated,” Wiese said.

The project is funded by a $5,000 Ford Family Foundation grant and about $5,000 in other donations.

“We’re hoping that by putting the bins in the schools, the kids will learn to recycle and, in turn, take that knowledge home and get their families to recycle as well,” Wiese said. 

She added that not nearly enough people in the area seem to recycle. Wiese said she sees it every time she goes to the beach, when picnicking families toss recyclables into the trash.

“The state of the environment today, I think it’s inexcusable not to recycle,” Wiese said. “But we’re going to change that.”