Juice pouches, energy bar wrappers and potato chip bags are all items that can’t be recycled traditionally. Instead, the school sends such waste to a New Jersey business called TerraCycle, which takes the rubbish and repurposes it into other products. Long Beach Unified School District board member Diana Craighead applauds the efforts of the Longfellow community to be environmentally sustainable.

St. Gregory the Great Episcopal Church in Athens is hosting its first TerraCycle Triathlon of Trash through Aug. 15. The community is asked to gather trash from the list included here below and bring it to the TerraCycle Triathlon of Trash Showdown on Aug. 16 at a location to be determined. The person that brings the most trash, by weight, will win a free semester at the University of Georgia — in-state tuition only, estimated at $3,800. Trash that will be accepted includes: Drink pouches, straws and straw wrappers, coffee pouches, cookie and cracker wrappers, energy bar, breakfast bar and energy food wrappers, candy and gum wrappers, chip and pretzel bags, all lunch kit trays and wrappers, dairy containers, Sprout brand baby food and crushed fruit bags, containers and wrappers, cereal bags, Bear Naked brand granola and cereal product wrappers, wine corks, disposable household tape dispensers, plastic sandwich bags and temporary plastic containers. Also, wrappers from toilet paper, napkins and paper towels, toothpaste tubes, dental floss devices and used toothbrushes, glue containers and glue sticks, all writing instruments except chalk and crayons, beauty and skin care product tubes and containers, diaper wrappers, cheese wrappers, tortilla, tostada and bread wrappers, home cleaning containers and items, plastic drinking cups, laundry and dish wash detergent briquette bags, wine pouches, hummus containers and cigarette and cigar waste including ashes, unburnt tobacco, filter stubs, plastic outer wrap and aluminum paper inner wrapping. St. Gregory also will accept all cellphones, MP3 players, digital cameras, GPS systems, calculators, printer and toner cartridges and laptop computers including all cords and chargers, and all shoes. For information on how to package the trash, about the competition, about TerraCycle and more, call Andrew Lane at (706) 296-6631 or emailandrew.s.lane@us.army.mil.

It’s June, and that means the end of the school year is near. I am dedicating this month’s column to one of our local schools for going above and beyond with recycling and sustainable practices. It is my hope that the Gray’s Woods Elementary School can serve as a model for other schools in Centre County. When the Gray’s Woods Elementary Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) met last fall, it was evident that they wanted to ramp up the school’s recycling program. Gray’s Woods had already been recycling paper, metal cans, plastic bottles and cardboard. The school was also collecting soda tabs that are donated to the Ronald McDonald House in Danville. However, they wanted to do more. I volunteered to be chairwoman of the recycling committee, and we started full speed ahead. One of the first new initiatives was to integrate the “TerraCycle Brigades” program. We set up recycling collection bins for the following “hard to recycle” items: paired shoes & flip flops, empty glue sticks, old writing instruments and empty tape dispensers. Once we collected enough of each item, they were mailed to TerraCycle (free of charge) to be recycled. TerraCycle offers reward points for each item. The points can be donated as cash to a charity of the school’s choice. Many local schools and churches participate in TerraCycle Brigades. More information can be found at www.terracycle.com. In addition to the TerraCycle program, recycling bins were set up to collect miscellaneous plastics, lids/caps and plastic bags. When the bins were full, I took the items to work to be incorporated into the county’s recycling program. One great thing about the Gray’s Woods Elementary recycling program is that it’s open to Gray’s Woods families. Parents can send recyclables to school with their child to add to the school’s items. If your school would like to learn about incorporating more recycling into the mix, please contact me at amyschirf@uplink.net, and we can work on it.

Hayhurst Elementary in Southwest Portland has gone from using seven 30-gallon bags of waste each lunch period to just half a bag. What’s the school’s secret?   Hayhurst PTA sustainability chairwoman Kendall KIC, (who legally changed her name to all caps), says that back in November of 2009 she discovered a program online called TerraCycle and has since kept 9,000 juice pouches out of the trash.   Capri Sun and other juice pouches had been among a slew of items difficult for schools to recycle, so kids ended up just throwing them in the garbage. But TerraCycle provides Hayhurst’s sustainability “brigade” with prepaid labels to ship out hard-to-recycle items, such as drink pouches, candy wrappers, chip bags and flip-flops.   The New Jersey-based company makes money from recycling the products and shares its earnings by granting points for the brigade to earn cash for the school or a favorite charity.   “Over time, it’s slowly building so people realize that we’re doing this,” KIC says. “My goal is at least 5,000 juice pouches collected during this upcoming school year.”   She keeps them packed in a yard-debris bag in her garage, but recently a school custodian allowed her space in the Hayhurst boiler room, where the juice pouches can dry. Some money comes back to the PTA for funding school activities, but that’s not the emphasis for organizers.   “About $200 a school year is not really what it’s about for us; it’s more about the sustainability piece,” KIC says.   Apparently, the secret is getting out, as this will also be the third year of a TerraCycle program at Sojourner School in Milwaukie. “Sojo” is an alternative magnet school and, at about 186 students, the smallest elementary in North Clackamas School District. Known for a high number of volunteer hours parents put in, it turned out to be a perfect early adopter of a TerraCycle program.   Starting with juice pouches in the first year, the Sojo program added toothpaste tubes, flip-flops, glue sticks and tape rings last year. TerraCycle program coordinator and former PTA Vice President Polly Lugosi says the brigades have extended their reach to neighbors not usually involved with the school. They’ve taken to collecting from soccer games.   “I find that people don’t throw them away even when they’re not at school,” Lugosi says.   At a holiday assembly this year, Lugosi says students will get a chance to vote on charities to donate about $100 collected from the program.   TerraCycle spokeswoman Lauren Taylor says a lot of people find out about the programs through the packaging, such as by seeing the labels on Capri Sun juice boxes, and then they go to the website. “It’s very easy for people to sign up based on the waste stream they’re looking to collect,” Taylor says.   Nationally, TerraCycle says its programs have raised $4.5 million for charity, thanks to nearly 31 million people collecting trash.   All schools are eligible, Taylor says. A tax ID number is necessary so the money can go to charity. The revenue from recycling can go to any charity — even the National Rifle Association (we asked).   The growing list of Portland-area schools getting involved includes Menlo Park Elementary School, David Douglas Arthur Academy, Faithful Savior Ministries, Earl Boyles Elementary, Mount Scott Elementary, Oak Grove Elementary, John Wetten Elementary, Chief Joseph Elementary, Sauvie Island Academy, John Jacob Astor Elementary, Markham Elementary, Laurelhurst Elementary, Parklane Elementary, Lynch Meadows Elementary and Creative Science School.

When the glue sticks lose their sticky, the markers dry up and the tape is tapped out, we usually throw them out. In the course of the school year, that can add up to a lot of classroom waste. But what if those small, leftover parts could find a new life outside of the landfill?

TerraCycle has the answer: upcycling, or converting waste products that would not normally be recycled into useful items.

The Trenton, N.J.-based company has long teamed up with area school and civic groups to collect landfill-bound trash like juice pouches and candy wrappers and turn them into useful products, including back-to-school gear like totes, pencil cases and lunch bags.

The list of participating Capital District schools continues to grow and includes Shaker Road Elementary, Eagle Point Elementary, Bethlehem Central Middle School, Lynwood Elementary in Guilderland, North Colonie Central Schools, Bradt Primary School in Schenectady and Stevens Elementary in Ballston Lake.

The company relies on participants to help spread the upcycling message.

“(Schools find out by) reading about us … and word of mouth,” said PR Director Lauren Taylor,

Over the years, TerraCycle has added to the list of things collected for upcycling, which now includes glue stick containers and old computer mice.

Following the collection, scientists analyze what the packaging is made from. “From there, we can see where it has value,” said Taylor.

This year, the schools involved with TerraCycle will be participating in the second “Box that Rocks” contest. In this contest, participants try to produce the most creative collection bin for TerraCycle Brigade items. The winning team can earn extra money and TerraCycle prizes.

“Some locations have fun with collection boxes,” said Taylor.

Students send their used supplies to TerraCycle, Inc. instead of to landfills. TerraCycle uses the items to create trash cans, watering cans, park benches, playgrounds, and other products that are sold at stores like Walmart and Whole Foods Market. In turn, every object students collect earns points toward a donation to the school or a charity. Nearby TerraCycle participants include Blair Mill Elementary School, Pennypack Elementary School, and Upper Moreland Intermediate School in Hatboro; Enfield Elementary School in Oreland; Epiphany of Our Lord School in Plymouth Meeting; and Robbins Park Environmental Education Center, Mattison Avenue Elementary School, Shady Grove Elementary School, and Lower Gwynedd Elementary School in Ambler. Art teacher Mary Arbuckle is the coordinator for Blair Mill and Pennypack. “I…thought it would [be] great to encourage all of my students to start collecting juice pouches to send to [TerraCycle],” Arbuckle explains via email. The schools have added glue sticks, laptops, computer mice, cell phones, candy wrappers, Lunchables, chip bags, energy bars, old shoes, and more to their collections. The approximately 750 children from Blair Mill and Pennypack are very involved in the TerraCycle process. Teachers, staff, and children collect items at home and at school, and students “sort items to be shipped to [TerraCycle]….They are also using their imaginations and [coming] up with their own ideas for reusing items instead of throwing items away,” Arbuckle says.