« L’école La Perdriolle est une école qui a l’écologie à cœur! » déclare Cynthia Bilodeau, enseignante. « En effet, portant fièrement l’étendard des écoles EVB (établissements vertes Bruntland), les élèves qui y gravitent sont des habituées de l’écologie, du pacifisme, de la solidarité et de la  démocratie. » Les étudiants de cette école participent à un certain nombre d’initiatives vertes, y compris celle-ci. Pour soutenir leurs chances de gagner ce concours, ils invitent le public à apporter des gourdes-collation usagées à leur école au lieu de les jeter.

St. Anthony’s School is competing to win a picnic table made from recycled GoGo squeeZ pouches through the inaugural “Ready, Set, GoGo” collection contest, courtesy of GoGo squeeZ, the applesauce snack brand, and recycling company TerraCycle. St. Anthony’s School is hoping to collect the most snack pouch waste, including the flexible pouches and plastic caps, before May 31. Schools earn one point for each GoGo squeeZ pouch sent to TerraCycle for recycling and one point per each vote received on the contest page during the contest period. The grand prize picnic table will be made from recycled waste collected through the GoGo squeeZ Snack Pouch Recycling Program, a free, national program operated by GoGo squeeZ and TerraCycle. “Each classroom at our school has a designated TerraCycle bin where students put all items accepted by TerraCycle” said Amanda Saxton, teacher at St. Anthony’s School. “Green Team members empty the bins periodically into a larger bin and then waste is sorted monthly and shipped.” The GoGo squeeZ Snack Pouch Recycling Program recently hit a nationwide milestone of over 315,000 units collected and nearly $7,000 dollars raised for charity. “We would love to win this contest because our school has been involved in Terracycle for a number of years,” Saxton continues. “It would be very rewarding for students to see firsthand an example of a product that can be created from the items we've been collecting for years.” The program is an ongoing activity, open to any individual, family, school or community group. For each piece of waste sent in using a pre-paid shipping label, participants earn points that can be translated into charitable prizes or cash donations to the school or charity of their choice. To learn more about the program, visit www.terracycle.ca/en-CA/brigades/snack-pouch-brigade.

L’école Paul-VI est en compétition pour gagner une table de pique-nique fabriquée avec des gourdes-collation grâce au concours «À vos marques, prêt, GoGo!». Le concours est géré par GoGo squeeZ, la marque des gourdes de compote de fruits, et de l’entreprise de recyclage, TerraCycle. L’école Paul-VI espère recueillir le plus de déchets de gourdes-collation, y compris les gourdes de compote et leurs bouchons en plastique, avant le 31 mai. Les écoles reçoivent un point pour chaque gourde-collation envoyée à TerraCycle pour être recyclée, et un point pour chaque vote reçu sur la page du concours. La table de pique-nique sera faite avec les déchets collectés par le programme de recyclage des gourdes-collation, un programme gratuit géré par GoGo squeeZ et TerraCycle. « En tant qu'enseignante de l'école primaire Paul-VI à Laval,  j'ai implanté la collecte car je voyais les élèves en utiliser chaque jour, » dit Lucie Frenette, enseignante à l’école Paul-VI. « En expliquant le bien-fondé de l'entreprise, c'est-à-dire,  recycler, moins polluer et obtenir des récompenses. Nous nous sommes tous investis dans ce projet. » « Depuis deux ans, avec l'aide de l'équipe-école et des 330 élèves, nous collectons tous les types de gourdes-collation à l'école.  Jusqu'à ce jour, nous avons recueilli 9 500 gourdes! » Frenette continue. « Nous sommes heureux d'aider à diminuer les déchets et très fiers de ce projet. » Le programme de recyclage des gourdes-collation a récemment surpassé un jalon national de plus de 315 000 unités collectées et près de 7 000 dollars recueillis pour des organismes de bienfaisance. Le programme de recyclage est une activité continue, ouverte à toute personne, famille, école ou organisme. Pour chaque morceau de déchets envoyé avec une étiquette d'expédition prépayée, les participants gagnent des points qui peuvent être traduits en des dons à l'école ou à l'organisme de bienfaisance de leur choix. Pour en savoir plus sur le programme, visitez http://www.terracycle.ca/fr-CA/brigades/gogo-squeez-brigade.

Rosedale Public School in Sarnia is participating in a nation-wide recycling contest hoping to win the grand prize of a picnic table made from recycled snack packaging waste.   Since March, students have been sending snack pouches to be recycled and submitting daily votes for their school. Now, the school sits 14th in the running to win the grand prize. Rosedale Public School hopes to collect the most snack pouch waste, including the flexible pouches and plastic caps, before May 31st. The contest is put on by TerraCycle, a recycling company that takes difficult-to-recycle packaging and turns it into innovative products and Materne, the creators of GoGo squeeZ, a squeezable applesauce sold in plastic pouches. Schools earn one point for each GoGo squeeZ pouch sent to TerraCycle for recycling and one point for each vote received on the online contest page. Anyone wanting to support Rosedale’s efforts can go online and vote for the school by following this link. The contest is part of the GoGo squeeZ snack pouch recycling program which has collected over 315,000 units and raised nearly $7,000 for charity nation-wide. The program is ongoing and open to any individual, family, school or community group. For each piece of waste sent in using a pre-paid shipping label, participants earn points that can be translated into charitable prizes or cash donations to the school or charity of their choice. More information about the program can be found on TerraCycles’ website.

We live in a world of packaging. Unless you buy every single food item in bulk, never buy pre-made snacks or meals, and never grab a snack on a whim at a nearby bodega, there’s a very good chance you have a decent amount of packaging in your house. While some things, like cardboard cereal boxes, Tetrapacks, and glass bottles, are a bit easier to sort, there are other items like chip bags, juice pouches, and bar wrappers that don’t seem to belong in any particular recycling bin. With this problem in mind, TerraCycle was born. This innovative recycling program allows consumers to send in material they can’t recycle on their own and allow TerraCycle to take care of it. While TerraCycle has programs that require consumers to purchase special boxes where they can send waste in, the company also partners with different brands and companies to offer free recycling programs. Pretty much what this entails is TerraCycle sending a packing box or envelope to your home, you filling it up with the waste from a particular brand, sending it back for free, and subsequently feeling good about helping bring down the amount of trash that ends up in landfills. Then TerraCycle finds better uses for the material. Pretty good deal for all! Want to participate? Check out these 12 brands that have partnered with TerraCycle to get started. Happy recycling!

In a fast-paced world where convenience is currency, a continuing prominent trend in product packaging is the use of flexible plastic pouches. More consumers are choosing pouches over traditional glass, paper and metal packaging, and even rigid plastics, as global market demand is projected to rise 6.2% annually to $37.3 billion in 2018. Food is the largest and most developed market for pouch use due in great part to rising output and consumption rates worldwide. Pharma/medical and beverage are the second and third largest markets, respectively. Japan is a country that has long been ahead of the pouch packaging trend, as urbanization and a fast-paced lifestyle keep space and time at a premium in Japanese cities. The heat-resistant boil-in-a-bag (later microwavable) food delivery model addressed lifestyle needs of Japanese consumers as far back as in the 1970s, when more women were entering the workforce and convenience was compulsory. Today, Japanese pouch-meals and pre-cut single-serving vegetables and meats respond to Japan’s aging population of elders who live alone (27% are 65 or older), pioneering innovation in the consumer retail experience. Here in the U.S., consumer lifestyle trends demand increasingly convenience and portability of product, particularly in the food sector. Ease of use at home and on the go have become a requisite for driving the purchase of consumer foods. This is particularly true for Millennials, who represent about a fourth of the entire U.S. population with $200 billion in annual buying power; significantly, one in four Millennials are now parents, which not only compounds the demand for convenience, but their influence on future consumers (their children) and older generations (their parents). With less time to spare and more options than ever, consumers cite convenience as a consumer need that is increasingly addressed by the innovations offered by pouch packaging. Advancements in seal and barrier technologies for the pouches market are keeping food fresher longer at all stages of the supply chain, contributing to a longer shelf lifefor both retailers and end-users. As quality and healthfulness of convenience food products continue to increase in significance, pouch technologies allow a greater variety of these foods to be available to more consumers, geographically and economically speaking. For example, the dairy market segment, which includes yogurt (a product very much in demand), is expected to grow significantly through 2020 with the aid of these high-barrier pouches. The environmental implications of pouches in food packaging and other markets are significant. Pouches are smaller and thinner than glass, paper and metal packaging and will use 60% less plastic and be 23% lighter compared to traditional rigid packaging on average. Both the stand-up and flat variety of pouch generally have a higher product-to-package ratio than rigid packaging and require about half of the energy required to produce, cutting down on the CO2 emissions released during production and during transport; taking up less space means fewer trucks are needed, reducing fuel consumption and additional CO2 emissions. While flexible plastic pouches reduce landfill waste because they are lighter, less bulky and take up less volume than conventional packaging, it is important to note that they are not recyclable through the current waste management infrastructure. The multi-layer films from which most pouches are comprised are often made up of several different plastics, which are difficult to recycle because these components they require separating. Further, contact with food, beverage, medical and industrial substances requires additional processing so as to not contaminate recycled plastic batches. This is not to mention the numbers associated with the waste created by single-serving items.  Pouches now feature handles, zippers, easy-tear and resealable openings, spouts, straws, spoons and caps to name just a few types of the closures and fitments that make consumer food products easier to transport and use with high functionality, but make them that much more difficult to recycle due to their component parts. However, consumers do have free recycling options for their pouch waste. Companies solving for their pouch brand packaging through sponsored recycled programs with my company TerraCycle include GoGo squeeZ, GU Energy and Honest Kids, all of which make products with the on-the-go pouch configurations that are exemplars of the convenience and efficiency that pouches deliver. Innovative, sustainable solutions for packaging consumer products, from sambar to soap, lie in inventing the most efficient, environmentally sound ways to accommodate the world’s changing lifestyles. Convenient, efficient and comparatively smaller in carbon foot print than some rigid packaging, pouches of all material compositions and shapes address consumer trends while moving in a good direction for waste reduction. “Necessity is the mother of invention,” and pouches continue to push enhanced functionality and convenience in excitingly fresh ways.

Sold in 4-pack windowed cartons, the yogurt has a 12-month shelf life from date of manufacture. An agreement with Terracycle, Trenton, N.J., collects pouches for recycling. “We are excited about our ongoing partnership with Terracycle, which has given our consumers an opportunity to upcycle all of their squeezable snack food pouches and caps into new products, since 2011. To date, we have collected over 2 million pieces of waste across over 7,500 participating locations,” he said.

April 22 is Earth Day, a great opportunity for you to think about reducing your carbon footprint. One easy way to give back is by supporting brands that are environmentally friendly, and recycling or composting packaging whenever possible instead of simply throwing it in the garbage. Below, I've compiled a few of my favorite brands--each of which makes quite a few gluten-free options--that I feel do a great job giving back to the planet. Keep reading to learn which of their products are the most delicious and how you can enjoy them in environmentally responsible ways!

A fourth grade teacher at Carlstadt Public School is trying to promote recycling, help save the environment and fundraise for the school — all in one go. Maura Barrett proposed that the school join the TerraCycle trash collection program because she wanted to do something to help the environment.

Audubon Elementary School students in Foster City helped keep garbage out of local landfills by participating in a program which encouraged recycling their lunchtime waste. Local students recycled 1,441 empty apple sauce pouches through participation in a corporate partnership between garbage company TerraCycle and GoGoSqueez, which encourages environmentally conscious consumption. Since signing up for the program, Audubon Elementary School students have recycled 3,278 pouches, which can be redeemed for charity gifts or cash donations.