A local organization is mixing faith, and recycling. "Well we truly believe that God calls us to care for creation, and part of caring for creation is caring for the earth,” said Karen Neder with Earthkeepers. Karen helped found Earthkeepers back in 2007. It's a group open to any religion, but all with the same mission: to be more environmentally friendly. "As a way for churches in the Quad Cities area to get together and exchange ideas about greening their congregations,” said Karen. And Karen has gone above and beyond to make her church, Trinity Lutheran, a greenhouse of worship. She started by cultivating the crop of her fellow parishioners. Putting up a display teaching what can, and can't be recycled in the church's own recycling program. Karen said sometimes, it's been a challenge. "It's amazingly confusing for people,” she said. But then, just a couple of months ago, Karen took things to the next level. She discovered an online recycling program called Terracycle. “Terracycle is a program that I started here to encourage recycling of non–recyclables," said Karen. It's as easy as taking things that you didn't know you could recycle; makeup, Chapstick, a Brita filter, putting them into a box, and sending them off. "It's a website that you go to and you can join a specific brigade that's sponsored by a company,” said Karen. A brigade is a specific group of items you're recycling. For example, Kraft sponsors a cheese brigade, where you gather empty cheese wrappers. When enough are collected, Karen puts them in a box and ships them off to the company, where they're recycled. And you even get money for doing it. "Whatever you collect, when you send it into Terracycle, they will give you whatever you collect and the points can be turned into a small amount of money for a charity or a school,” said Karen. Karen chose Trinity Lutheran's preschool, Blessed Beginnings. "The response was so great from parents,” said Karen. A one woman show, Karen is merging faith and recycling into a perfect harmony for the future.

It's Hump Day!!  This means the week is halfway over, and that there are only 7 days left of students.  If you read my post from Monday then you know our school had a Green School Celebration that day.  I am totally taking this post to BRAG about how awesome our school is!! First, we are the FIRST and ONLY Green School in our county.  That includes the 17 elementary, 6 middle schools, and 5 high schools.  We were awarded this honor by theMaryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education and means that we use a "holistic, integrated approach to authentic learning that incorporates local environmental issue investigation and professional development with environmental best management practices and community stewardship".  We have been working ALL year to meet this goal, and I think we totally rocked it!!! Every grade level took on a different environmental project, everything from creating safe habitats for local animals to planting local plants, recycling and collecting rain water to use to water the landscaping.  Here's a run-down of what each grade level was responsible for: Kindergarten - Building and maintaining butterfly houses, participating in a TerraCycle Brigade to recycle Entenmann's Little Bite Pouches. 1st Grade - Building and maintaining bird houses, participating in a TerraCycle Brigade to recycle Elmer's glue sticks/bottles and Lunchables containers.

PANAMA CITY BEACH — After joining a worldwide movement to “outsmart waste” last fall, Pier Park is expanding its efforts this summer by launching an area-wide initiative to keep waste out of landfills. Through a partnership with worldwide recycling pioneer TerraCycle, the shopping center signed on to participate in a Cigarette Waste Brigade last year, in which cigarette butts are collected and recycled into plastic pellets for industrial use. Since the brigade’s inception, TerraCycle has collected more than 13.5 million units of cigarette butts from 4,801 collection locations. The effort was so successful at Pier Park that officials have decided to expand to recycling other products through TerraCycle’s various brigade programs. “As part of Simon Property Group, Pier Park is proud to expand its recycling efforts aligned with TerraCycle’s innovative Waste Brigade programs,” said Pier Park General Manager Brent Gardner. “ PierPark is committed to doing its part to create a more sustainable environment for generations to come, and this expanded effort will positively reduce landfill waste, which is a primary environmental goal.” Starting in June, area residents and visitors are encouraged to bring recyclables to Pier Park on the first Saturday of every month between 9 a.m. and noon. Pier Park will be collecting items for 21 different TerraCycle brigades, which will then be packaged and sent to the organization to be recycled. Categories include: iPod and MP3 players; laptop, tablets and E-readers; Brita filter products; cellphones; cheese packaging; cigarette butts; cleaner packaging; Colgate products packaging; dairy tubs; diaper packaging; drink pouches; Elmer’s glue sticks, bottles and caps; energy bar wrappers; Glad food storage products; inkjet and toner cartridges; lunch kit packaging (Lunchables); pairs of shoes; personal care and beauty products; Scotch tape; snack bags; and writing instruments.

The Ruidoso News, through its offices at 104 Park Avenue, will provide collection receptacles to staff and clients. The list of products that can be put to good use through Coyote Howling's Terracycle program is large

The Ruidoso News is launching a company-wide recycle campaign. Even though the newspaper's parent has an existing corporate mandate that recycles all newsprint products, General Manager Marianne Mohr is initiating a broader initiative to support the TerraCycle "Brigades" sponsored by Coyote Howling

The Ruidoso News, through its offices at 104 Park Avenue, will provide collection receptacles to staff and clients. The list of products that can be put to good use through Coyote Howling's Terracycle program is large.

Rethinking what is trash is key to TerraCycling. TerraCycling is a concept that is less then 10 years old but has spread to more than 20 different countries and is now rooted and growing in the local Lincoln County community.

“We will be working with a recycling company called TerraCycle, and to make our project a success, we need not only the school but the community’s help,” Carlson said. TerraCycle is a company that takes used packaging and other products that would otherwise end up in landfills and reuses them to create new materials and products, also known as “upcycling.”

The leadership students plan to hold a recycled art contest and work with a company called TerraCycle, which offers programs for collecting and recycling typically discarded items such as chip bags, Lunchables trays and Elmer’s glue bottles.

Students at the Antioch Elementary District 34 school sent 1,822 empty glue sticks and bottles to TerraCycle Inc. as part of its annual Elmer's Annual Classroom Cleanout contest. For each piece of waste sent to TerraCycle, the school earns points toward charity gifts or cash donations to any school...