Lamar Elementary School raises all of its money for the year, through a number of recycling programs. "We haven't had to have an actual fundraiser at the school in three years," said Donna Bradford, the parent volunteer who runs the program. Students are encouraged to throw certain items in recycling bins, rather than the trash. Then, some students help crush bottles, peel labels and sort the items into categories. Through terracycle.com, Lamar gets points for each item they send in, and those points can be redeemed for cash or school supplies. Sending to terracycle is completely free for the school. Lamar also participates in three other recycling programs, including Box Tops, Labels 4 Education and the SunnyD BookSpree. That means some items can be recycled in more than one way. For example, the plastic from a SunnyD bottle goes to terracycle and the label to SunnyD BookSpree In one school year, they raised $1,000. Student Council then decides how to use the funds, which are designated for extra activities like field trips. "We have field trips and field day and extra stuff that we can do, just so we can have fun," said Lance Sanchez, who helps with the program. Each grade level competes to see who can raise the most money, but some students have the bigger picture in mind. "I think it's all good, because it's going toward recycling," said fourth grader Ariel Kirkland. "I just want to keep the earth clean."

As my oldest child boarded the bus on her first day of kindergarten, I was very emotional and full of questions. Would she make friends? Would she like her teacher? How would I fit into this new chapter of her life?   As a stay-at-home mom of three (including a very active 1-year-old), I knew I wouldn’t be able to volunteer during school hours or help with events on weeknights. Luckily, the PTO had effective strategies for reaching out to new parents that helped me get involved and feel connected to the school.   When school started, words like Box Tops for Education, winter fair, and TerraCycle were all new to my vocabulary. A cheat sheet supplied by the PTO explained what these fundraisers were and how they worked. Soon I was clipping box tops, saving drink pouches, and looking forward to the family activities offered at the school.   The PTO offered a wide variety of volunteer opportunities, including several jobs that could be done from home. I volunteered to help with the publishing center, which produces bound copies of student-written books. A few weeks after I signed up, handwritten books were sent home in my daughter’s backpack along with clear directions, samples, and paper for this task. Each book took approximately 10 minutes to type and print out. I could easily type up books during naptime or other lulls in our household.   It was fun to prepare the books, and because I was never given more than five books at a time, I never felt overwhelmed by the task. Throughout the year, I typed up a total of 25 books. I appreciated the fact that the PTO had a meaningful way for me to participate despite my limited availability.   I also liked that the PTO used email as its main form of communication, cutting down on the paperwork that came home from school. It was clear to me as a parent that the PTO used great discretion in sending out these emails, minimizing the number of messages and keeping them brief. Because I knew emails from the PTO contained vital information about things happening at school, I actually read them when they arrived in my inbox!   Email also gave me a comfortable way to interact with people I hadn’t yet met. We had just moved to a new town, and it was daunting to meet so many new people; email gave me anonymity to ponder the choices and decide where to help without having to respond to each request in person.   After any event or fundraiser, our PTO thanked volunteers and reported on the success of the event. As a newbie, I had wondered if anyone even noticed that I worked the spin art booth for two hours at the fall festival. Getting an email the next day helped me feel even better about how I helped the PTO. And when they explained the specific ways a fundraiser benefited the school, such as providing funding for family fun nights and teacher appreciation dinners, I could see how my involvement made a difference.   This year, as my daughter gets on the bus for 1st grade, I’ll be looking forward to volunteering for more programs. In addition to helping with the publishing center, I’m thinking about helping out with the winter fair and teacher appreciation dinners. And I know that the PTO will help me stay connected with the school, whatever role I take in the group. Theresa Rosenberg is a PTO volunteer at Cornwall Elementary in Lebanon, Pa.

Al lamentar que Acayucan sea de las ciudades con más basura en las calles, en la entidad veracruzana, Alma Delia Urbina Sánchez, impulsora del programa “terracycle”, llamó a la población a involucrarse en la novedosa técnica del reciclado de basura con lo cual podrán participar en la creación de fondos financieros que se destinarían a instituciones con visibles carencias. “Queremos formar parte de esos 20 países que se sumaron al proyecto de terracycle mismo que nació en 2001 por un joven universitario interesado en la ecología y el medio ambiente y que ahora ha logrado unir a 35 millones de personas en la reutilización de los desechos que se transforman en productos ecológicos a bajos precios”, dijo la activista ambiental. “En Acayucan es el Colegio Carlos Grossman el que invita a la ciudadanía a que se inscriban a este programa a través de alguna asociación o institución o que traigan su material a esta escuela; la técnica es recolectar la bolsas de comida chatarra, cajas y tubos de pasta dental, sobres de saborizantes para agua entre otros, mismos que serán separados de acuerdo a la línea del producto, por cada empaque vacío la fundación aportará 0.5 centavos que serán enviados a una cuenta y los cuales podrán disponer al presentar un proyecto de mejoramiento ambiental o para instituciones de asistencia social, educación o salud que necesiten mejoramiento”. Reiteró que el 90 por ciento de la basura que se tira es reciclable, de ahí el exitoso programa ecológico de “terracycle” que además de evitar que gran cantidad de basura vaya a parar a las calles y tiraderos clandestinos, proporciona fondos de mejoramiento ambiental y para asistencia social. Cabe mencionar que el programa se dio a conocer en la sede del prestigiado colegio Carlos Grossman ante la asistencia de la La directora del colegio Carlos Grossman, Rosa García Paredón, la directora de primaria Grossman, Emma Constreras Sánchez.

El alumno Ander Montaño, de 1º ESO, ha resultado ganador del primer premio en el concurso estatal de redacciones convocado por Terracycle en la celebración del Día de la Tierra (22 de abril).

TerraCycle Triathlon of Trash Winner Gets Free UGA Semester Dedicated to the Late Jim McGown of Athens who passed away March 7 of this year. A Veteran of the U.S. Navy, and a tireless worker for the betterment of mankind whose labor and efforts were felt as far away as the Middle East! There is No Waste...Only Wasted Resources! Perhaps Earth Day Should be Every Day as we only have one Earth and without it we would be lost! St Gregory the Great Episcopal Church on the East Side has now earned almost $6,000 by keeping over 260,000 pieces of formally difficult to recycle trash out of the landfill. While Broward College near Ft. Lauderdale has now earned $15,000. Let's be honest how much sense does it make to bury unbiodegradable trash under ground from land we stole from Mother Nature? This is Varsity Recycling: TerraCycle.com is now accepting what we would normally think of as difficult or impossible to recycle. Things like Any & All: Chip Bags, Candy Wrappers, Glue Sticks, Sunscreen  and Lipstick Tubes, and now Any and All Cigarette Trash to include Stinky Cigarette Butts. Here is the Deal: From right now until August 15th, 2013 collect everything you can from the list below placing and separating each category in its own container such as a  Box, Bird Seed, or Pet Food Bag.  Feel free to get as large as you want but make sure a single average person can move the container around fairly easy through average doorways with the assistance of a hand truck. Items can be damp but not soaked and should be shaken or squeezed free of most food and liquid.(No Need To Scrub or Rinse Anything Out) Boxes and Packages will be opened for inspection. The winner with the most by weight wins a free Semester(In-State Tuition estimated to be $3,800)! Participants will meet for a Showdown on August 16th, 2013 at a location To Be Determined. For more information meet Captain PLaneT for a personal demonstration, description, and Q&A in the Odum School of Ecology Courtyard on Tuesday June 11th, 2013 at 4:00 pm! Or schedule me for a briefing at your location! If you are far away I can just email you all the UPS Shipping Labels for free shipping and TerraCycle will do the measuring. Just ask me for a label for specific brigades. The List:

1. Any & All Drink Pouches(Such as Capri-Sun, Kool-Aid to include the straws and straw wrappers)
2. Any & All Coffee Pouches(Such as Maxwell House, Equal Exchange Organic, and Starbucks)
3. Any & All Cookie and Cracker Wrappers(Such as Oreo and Keebler)
4. Any & All Energy or Breakfast Bar and Energy Food Wrappers(Such as Granola Bars, Breakfast Bars, Cliff Bars, Oddwalla Bars, Nut Bags, Kashi Bars)
5. Any & All Candy Wrappers(Such as M&Ms, Hershey, and Snickers) and Gum Wrappers(Such as Trident, Bubblicious, and Wrigley)
6. Any & All Chip and Salty Snack Bags(Such as Frito Lay, Pepperidge Farm, potato chip, crackers, pretzel, cheeto, nacho, and any that look and feel similar)
7. Any & All Lunch Kit Trays, Wrappers(such as Lunchables)
8. Any & All Dairy Tub Containers(Such as Stonyfield Farms, Chobani, Dannon) Butter Type Spread Containers (Such as Country Crock, Promise, and yes even the little baby single serve sizes along with baby coffee creamers) Sour Cream and Cottage Cheese, etc.
9. Sprout Brand Baby Food as well as Any & All Crushed Fruit Bags and Containers and Wrappers(GoGo Squeeze, Plum Organics, Gerber,  Chiquita, Ella's Kitchen, etc)
10. Any & All Cereal Bags(Such as Malt-O-Meal, Rice Crispies, and Honey Nut Cheerios)
11. Bear Naked Brand Granola and Cereal Product Wrappers
12. Any & All Corks Real and Fake Plastic from wine and other liquor bottles
13. Any & All Disposable Household Tape Dispensers (Such as Scotch Tape)
14. Any & All Home Storage Bags and Containers (such as Zip Lock Type Bags, sandwich bags, and temporary tupperware plastic containers)
15. Any & All Paper Towel and similar Paper Product Wrappers (Such as Scotts Paper Towels, Tissue Paper, Paper Napkins etc)
16. Any & All Tooth Paste Tubes, Dental Floss Devices, and used Toothbrushes (Such as Colgate, Crest, etc)
17. Any & All Glue Containers and Glue Sticks (Such as Elmer's)
18. Any & All Human Writing Instruments except Chalk and Crayons (Such as Used Up or Broken Pens, Sharpies, Markers, Highlighters, Magic Markers, and Mechanical Pencils, Wooden Pencils)
19. Any & All Beauty and Skin Care Product Tubes and Containers (Such as Aveeno and Aveda Skin Product Tubes, Neosporin Medicine Containers, Lip Stick Tubes, Cosmetic Cases,  Chap Stick Tubes, Shampoo Bottles, Deodorant Sticks and Sun Screen Tubes and Bottles)
20. Any & All Diaper Wrappers (such as Huggies, Pampers, g-Diaper and any sort of Baby Sanitation Wipe as well as Incontinence Pad Wrappers)
21. Any & All Cell Phones, MP3 players, Digital Cameras,  GPS Systems, Calculators, Printer and Toner Cartridges, and Laptop Computers including all cords and chargers
22. Any & All Cheese Wrappers (such as Kraft, Kroger, Sargento)
23. Any & All Tortilla, Tostada & Bread Wrappers (such as Mission Tortillas)
24. Any and All Home Cleaning Containers and Items (such as Method Packs, Windex, Pledge, Ajax, and Toilet Brushes, Tubes, Pistol Squeezers)
25. Any and All #5 & #6 disposable plastic drinking cup (Solo Cups)
26. Any and All Laundry and Dish Wash Detergent Briquette Bags (Dropps, Tide, Cascade)
27. Any and All Wine Pouches
28. Any and All Hummus Products (like Athenos Hummus)
29. Any and All Shoes
30. Any and All Cigarette & Cigar Waste including all the ashes, unburnt tobacco, filter stubs, plastic outer wrap, aluminum paper inner wrap. (Please place in an airtight plastic bag inside the outer package)

• Recogida de alimentos: "Operación kilo"

Desde el  27 de mayo hasta el 7 de junio estamos haciendo una segunda campaña de recogida de alimentos para Cáritas. De todos es sabido que hay muchas familias en Boadilla que dependen de la solidaridad de los demás para poder subsistir. Nos piden alimentos de pimera necesidad, fundamentalmente leche, aceite y azúcar.

En el marco del Día Internacional del Reciclaje, Fundación PepsiCo México y TerraCycle están invitando a las organizaciones no lucrativas a sumarse a fomentar una cultura de reciclaje en México a través del programa de recolección nacional de empaques que estas dos instituciones pusieron en marcha en noviembre de 2011. Todas las organizaciones no lucrativas constituidas en México como IAP, AC, y ABP así como instituciones educativas, iglesias y hospitales pueden sumarse a esta iniciativa registrándose, recolectando empaques de botanas y galletas de manera masiva y enviándolos a TerraCycle a través de los medios dispuestos en el programa. Las organizaciones interesadas, pueden participar inscribiéndose en la Brigada de Botanas Sabritas y la Brigada de Galletas Gamesa-Quaker por medio de la página de www.terracycle.com.mx. También pueden hacerlo por medio del  correo electrónico brigadaspepsico@terracycle.com.mx, a través del cual podrán recibir asesoría directa para su inscripción, la solicitud de guías de envío y el proceso para efectuar el canje de puntos a donativos. Por cada empaque que se envía, se otorgan 25 puntos en su cuenta, que equivalen a $0.25 centavos de peso que la institución podrá recibir como donativo en dos oportunidades del año, como lo han hecho ya otras organizaciones, como la Asociación de Padres de Niños con Cáncer y Leucemia (APANICAL), quien ha recibido ya más de trescientos mil pesos como mérito a su esfuerzo de recolección y a la voluntad de otros participantes que los han elegido como receptor de sus donativos. A través de este programa, PepsiCo México, TerraCycle y los más de 100,000 mexicanos que actualmente participan, permiten que haya una correcta disposición final de los materiales de empaque de los productos de botanas y galletas en México. Esta iniciativa forma parte nuestro compromiso con la Sustentabilidad Ambiental, en línea con nuestra estrategia denominada Desempeño con Sentido, que significa mantener un crecimiento sostenido al invertir en un futuro más saludable para las personas y para el planeta. Asimismo, forma parte del plan de brigadas de recolección de TerraCycle, a través del cual se han movilizado a más de 1 millón 400 mil personas en todo México.

A Brigada de Saúde Bucal Colgate, iniciativa da empresa especializada em higiene oral em parceria com a TerraCycle, atingiu a marca de 250 mil unidades coletadas. Desde maio de 2012, o projeto coleta materiais como tubos de cremes dentais, escovas de dente e suas respectivas embalagens em qualquer lugar do Brasil a fim de transformá-los em novos produtos.

Assim como os alimentos, os produtos de maquiagem também têm data de validade. Dentro desse prazo, o fabricante garante a eficácia e a segurança daquele cosmético. Fora dele, a eficiência vai diminuindo enquanto aumentam os riscos de alergia e irritações. "Em qualquer produto vencido os conservantes perdem sua atividade, favorecendo a oxidação, a decomposição dos ingredientes e a produção de substâncias nocivas à pele", explica Célio Takashi Higuchi, farmacêutico e professor do Senac.