The R.C. Miller Memorial Library houses one of the four Sketi the Yeti grocery bag recycling bins.

The Beaumont Public Library System has challenged community members to help them collect at least 1,000 grocery bags over the summer.

R.C. Miller Memorial Library Branch Manager Amy Keyes said the grocery bag collection combines the summer reading program theme of "Oceans of Possibilities" with library's mascot Sketi the Yeti and its community partnership with H-E-B.

"Plastic bags (are) something that we felt like we could recycle with the community," Keyes said. "It's a pretty simple idea, but we liked the idea of getting kids involved and working with our community partners to get the community."

Keyes said the combination of theme and recycling plastic bags gives a platform to educate children on how harmful plastic bags are to ocean life.

"If you do some research, birds in the ocean mistake plastic bags for food and the bags make them sick," Keyes said. "Turtles can't distinguish between a plastic bag floating in the ocean and a jellyfish, and (since) they can eat the jellyfish it's harmful for the turtle." 

Each of the Beaumont Public Library System's four circulating locations have a box set up to collect plastic bags. The collection started in the middle of May and will end with the summer reading program on July 23.

The libraries have already received around 300 plastic within the few weeks of collection, Keyes said.

"We've had good luck," Keyes said. "The R.C. Miller library has already had to empty their box twice. So, we're doing really good."