Scott Smith, Chief Executive Officer and owner of Cellect Plastics LLC, and Jacqueline Alexander, Chief Executive Officer of Girl Scouts Louisiana East, are pleased to announce the launch of an educational initiative designed to help protect both fresh and salt water across the Gulf coast region.
Cellect Plastics’ environmentally responsible Opflex™ products have met stringent EPA requirements and are currently being used in the clean-up of the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Together with Girl Scouts Louisiana East, Cellect Plastics will be working to educate people on the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA) and encouraging all citizens to take part in protecting our lakes, beaches, marshes, bays, harbors, and wildlife.
Cellect Plastics LLC, with its sole owner Scott C. Smith being a long term resident of Cape Cod, is committed to educating people on the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA) especially as it applies to responsible protection of Nantucket Sound in regard to the proposed Wind Farm project and the risks involved, both known and yet to be determined.
Recently, Scott Smith was informed that Opflex™ is the only material proven to actually absorb oil sheen that often times goes unseen. This sheen, which can be caused by any minor leak, poses a deadly risk to birds. Birds coming in contact with the sheen suffer hypothermia (rapid body temperature loss) and subsequent death.
According to Alexander, this type of eco-initiative is nothing new for the local Girl Scout council, who played a key role in the 1990s in the closing, cleaning and reopening of the Tangipahoa River which flows through one of its Girl Scout camps.
“We are pleased that Girl Scouts Louisiana East will be able to partner with an environmentally responsible product such as Opflex™ that helps clean and protect our precious water systems, lakes, streams, harbors, beaches, marshes, bays, oceans and wildlife,” said Alexander. The joint educational initiative will be adapted to fit into Girl Scouts Louisiana East’s current environmental educational program, further establishing the Girl Scout council as a leading pioneer in community environmental awareness.
Cellect is pledging to the Girl Scout organization, in perpetuity, 20 percent of net profits generated whenever Opflex™ is sold to a marina, or government agency -- including the U.S. Coast Guard and local or federal fish and wildlife agencies. Smith commented that Cellect Plastics, LLC is currently reviewing other Girl Scout initiatives in hopes of playing a major part in helping the leadership develop programs to obtain positive and measurable outcomes for girls and young women of all races, religions, ethnicity and economic background.
Scott Smith stated, “I have been humbled and honored to have met and worked alongside fishermen and other hardworking people in the Gulf of Mexico. I will never again take for granted pristine views of the beaches, wildlife, and marshes of Cape Cod and Nantucket Sound where I live. After witnessing the devastation from the oil spill in the Gulf, I consider it a responsibility to educate as many people as possible in regards to what I have learned. The Girl Scout organization is an excellent channel for this education.”