Auf Initiative des Stifteherstellers BIC und der Recyclingfirma TerraCycle hin wurde ein Programm für Schüler entwickelt, die dazu anregen soll, den Wert ihrer leeren Stifte zu überdenken. Auf der Bildungsmesse
Didacta, die vom 24.-26. Oktober in Basel stattfindet, bietet BIC zudem Messebesuchern die Möglichkeit, ihre leeren und defekten Stifte und Korrekturmittel direkt vor Ort zu recyceln, teilt TerraCyle mit.
Schulen, Kindergärten und Kindertagesstätten können jetzt an einem neuen Recyclingprogramm für Schreibgeräte und Korrekturmittel teilnehmen, welches zum Ziel hat, Schüler aktiv am Umweltschutz zu beteiligen. Das Programm beinhaltet, dass Schüler ihre leeren Schreibgeräte und Korrekturmittel sammeln und kostenlos einsenden, sodass diese zu neuen Produkten recycelt werden können. Als Gegenleistung dafür werden pro eingesandtem Schreibgerät oder Korrekturmittel zwei Rappen an eine gemeinnützige Organisation nach Wahl der Bildungseinrichtung oder direkt an die Schule gespendet.
Le personnel de la Maison des Services de la Communauté de Communes de la Basse-Zorn prouve son engagement pour la protection de l’environnement dans sa vie quotidienne au travail en participant à une nouvelle initiative de recyclage.
This September, Stuyvesant’s Environmental Club began to take part in the Brigade programs of TerraCycle, an organization that engages consumers in the collection of recycled packaging and products. With each collected item, TerraCycle offers points that can later be redeemed for charitable monetary compensation.
Founded in 2001 by Tom Szaky, then a 20-year-old Princeton University freshman, TerraCycle began with the production of organic fertilizer by packing liquid worm fecal matter in old soda bottles. Since then, the company has grown into one of the world’s fastest-growing green corporations. According to the organization’s official website, “with more than 20 million people collecting waste in over 20 countries, TerraCycle has diverted billions of units of waste and used them to create over 1,500 different products available at major retailers ranging from Walmart to Whole Foods Market.”
TerraCycle’s Brigade programs offer any organization or company the opportunity to make use of their waste stream. Aimed at eliminating the idea of waste, each Brigade program involves the collection a specific commodity—whether it is bottles, writing utensils, or electronics—previously regarded to be non-recyclable or difficult-to-recycle. Once an organization has selected a specific “Brigade” and has begun to collect waste, TerraCycle offers free shipping of the waste to the TerraCycle facility as well as points for each item collected. TerraCycle points can be redeemed for charitable gifts or a payment of $0.01 per point to a non-profit organization or school of one’s choice.
President of the Environmental Club senior Geyanne Lui first became aware of the importance of recycling when she took AP Environmental Science in 2011. “I noticed that a lot of people didn’t care about recycling—people threw all types of garbage in trash cans labeled specifically for cans and bottles or paper only,” Lui said. “I thought that it was important for there to be a program to show Stuyvesant students how easy it is to recycle as well as how significant it is.”
Looking for a way to bring a more organized recycling system to the school, Lui and the members of the Environmental Club consulted their faculty advisor and biology teacher Marissa Maggio for advice. Maggio had already been aware of TerraCycle, first becoming familiar with the organization through one of the students taking her online Environmental Biology course. In fact, last year, she introduced the Brigade program to her Stuyvesant freshman biology classes and offered extra credit to those that took part in bringing recyclable products from home for TerraCycle. After her students cumulatively raised approximately $150, Maggio thought that the Stuyvesant student body as a whole would be able to raise significantly more money.
With Maggio’s guidance, the members of the Environmental Club decided that TerraCycle would be a great organization to become involved in. In choosing Brigades they believed Stuyvesant students would most efficiently and conveniently contribute to, the club decided on the Chip Bag Brigade due to the sale of chips from the cafeteria vending machines, the Electronics Brigade, and the Flip-Flop Brigade for the summer season that just passed.
“Many schools in the city haves similar recycling programs,” said senior and Environmental Club member Kenneth Zheng. “The elementary school across from Stuyvesant, P.S. 89, is going to have their own TerraCycle program, and we are planning on collaborating with them to ship more recyclable waste together. We are also starting a mentoring program in which members of the Environmental Club volunteer during lunch periods to go over to P.S. 89 to teach the elementary students about recycling.”
However, before the club branches out to help other schools with their environmental cause, its members have been working to establish a structured system of recycling within Stuyvesant. Bins labeled for specific items have been placed in the cafeteria, and during lunch periods, certain club members help to engage other students in Stuyvesant’s TerraCycle Brigades and promote the conservation of resources. Moreover, the Environmental Club has created a recycling drive to collect cell phones, graphing calculators, ink cartridges, keyboards, cameras, and flip-flops.
The Environmental Club has decided to donate the money that is earned from the TerraCycle points to the Sierra Club, an organization that strives to successfully transition into a clean, green energy economy that better serves people and nature. The club members look to raise approximately $5,000 by the end of the school year.
Lui ultimately hopes that Stuyvesant’s TerraCycle Brigades will have both short and long term effects. “For starters, as we are collecting more waste to send out, we are raising more money for our charity that we are going to donate to. But, in the end, I hope that Stuyvesant students will become more accustomed to recycling in school, will not litter the streets, and value the environment more,” Lui said.
Maggio agrees and believes that the new recycling program will set the standard for not only Stuyvesant but also the broader scale of New York City. “Stuyvesant High School has always fostered rigorous academics and has really set the bar for scholarship in schools throughout the region, if not nation. Our [TerraCycle Brigades] can be another instance of how we excel—not just to benefit ourselves, but the environment as a larger whole.”
El planeta necesita que cada vez tomemos más consciencia del significado que la ecología tiene en estos tiempos, y comprometerse con el reciclado ¡es esencial!
Por eso, Tang estuvo presente en Kids Choice Awards Argentina 2012, y en el marco del evento premió a la Brigada Ganadora del Programa de Reciclaje que la marca llevó a cabo con Terracycle.
Candela Vetrano y Pablo Martínez, fueron los encargados de entregar el premio a los ganadores, integrantes de la Brigada For a Good Future, que logró recolectar 73.952 sobres de Tang para fabricar productos reciclados.
La divertida dupla de Supertorpe jugó con los chicos en el stand de Tang, y al momento de la entrega del premio, Candela y Pablo vistieron ropa confeccionada con los sobres reciclados de Tang, convirtiéndose en embajadores de la causa.
¿Vos qué acciones tomás para cuidar el planeta?
Just in time to get things under control before the holidays, Emmet County Recycling and Crystal Clear Organizing are offering an organizing class.
The class, titled "Organize and Recycle," is part of an initiative by the Michigan chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers and the Michigan Recycling Coalition, bringing together organizers and recycling programs to offer these classes.
A Terracycle
laptop computer case made from recycled billboard material and a set of stackable recycling bins will be given away as door prizes. Both presenters will include ideas for keeping recyclables organized.
The entrepreneur: Tom Szaky
The company: Founder, TerraCycle
"What happens in the world that is outside of our control. Europe has been hammered by austerity, China may be slowing slowing down (we don't really know), Japan is now into its second lost decade.
"What happens when China stops buying our debt? What about poor economic conditions around the globe that leave foreign markets unable to afford to buy our products? Domestically, housing is the most important concern and should get more focus."
FARMINGTON -- Gloved hands sifted swiftly through bags of trash Wednesday, finding paper, disposable cups, foil-lined granola-bar wrappers and uneaten food that could have been recycled.
For the fifth year, members of the Sustainable Campus Coalition at the University of Maine at Farmington rummaged through bags of garbage collected over a 24-hour period in campus residence halls.
They separated recyclables from trash and for the first time, garnered items such as business folders that the on-campus Everyone's Resource Depot could take for resale.
They also looked for Solo cups, pouch drink containers and granola wrappers that can be "upcycled" -- converted to new materials of better quality or better environmental value -- and sent to
TerraCycle where they are used to create usable items.
TerraCycle provides free waste collection programs for hard-to- recycle materials and turns the waste into "affordable green products," according to its website.
Students are looking for things such as backpacks, bags, newspapers, pencils and plastic picnic tables, said Joe Digman, an intern with Sarah Martin, an adjunct professor at UMF.
Martin is also volunteer coordinator of
TerraCycle for the United Way of the Tri-Valley Area. UMF is working with the United Way to start upcycling on campus, with all donations used to benefit the local region.
Cups, wrappers, beauty products and packaging, oral care products and pouch drinks are collected and shipped to
TerraCycle, which pays a stipend to benefit the agencies supported by the United Way. A purple collection bin for such items sits outside the United Way door on Broadway.
"It's a win-win," Martin said.
Items that would normally add to landfills are reused, producing less trash and less impact on the environment. The effort also produces a modest, steady income for the United Way, which helps local people, she said.
Digman has helped set up three bins on campus. Adding more bins is being considered, he said, manning a table that displayed items that can be upcycled.
Sustainable Campus Coalition members were finding a lot of foil- lined granola wrappers, No. 6 plastics and Solo cups, senior Sarah Lavorgna said as she helped separate trash.
Students Samantha Ritson, Jasmin Heckler and Emily Vitone staffed a table for Everyone's Resource Depot where they displayed artistic items created from materials found at the depot.
The trash day, sponsored by the SCC, has shown a decrease each year in items that can be recycled, said Kaisha Muchemore, a UMF senior and co-coordinator of the campus group.
The decrease indicates the exercise is effective, Muchemore said. Last year, about 30 percent of the trash could have been recycled, she said. The group was hoping to lower the percentage to 20 percent or less this year, SCC coordinator Luke Kellett said.
Members have met with Sandy River Recycling Manager Ron Slater to better understand which items the facility can recycle. They also are working on a food event set for Saturday, Oct. 27, at the Farmington Grange Hall involving local farmers and local food sources, Kellett said. The group also intends to hold another Fiddlehead Festival in May.
30-year-old social entrepreneur says movement’s time has come
Friday November 19, 2012 -- Kristian Partington
Being true to a core strength is the biggest lesson entrepreneur Tom Szaky has learned in his business life and that’s the advice he offers others who are eager to dive into the world of social enterprise.
“A social business needs to work as a business first and foremost,” he says.
“Really focus on what makes you special, and hold onto that. Outsource everything else around you, other than what makes you exceptionally special.”
When you stay true to the core principles of a green business, “karma is on your side,” Tom says, and in a world that demands green choices, success is totally attainable.
Tom founded TerraCycle in 2001 based on cycling waste into plant fertilizer, and the company has grown steadily since. It is considered by many today to be a leading example of a business that lives and breathes environmental and social sustainability.
The company now offers a range of affordable, eco-friendly products created from waste.
At 30, Tom represents a new generation of social entrepreneurs that is keenly aware of the public’s demand for consumer choices that allow them to feel good about the companies they support through their spending.
TerraCycle’s dedication to environmental stewardship is generating loyal customers and supporters.
“For us it’s very simple,” Tom says. “We have very strong customer service in-house, we have very strong social media, and things like that really help foster a relationship with the consumer.”
His company and his team are committed to the core principles of sustainable development and growth, he says, and this creates loyalty among consumers.
There’s no question in Tom ’s mind that the shift to a more socially-conscious approach to business is a movement whose time has come, and he points to the fact that media and consumers are making green issues a central topic as cornerstones of this growing momentum.
“Media has picked up that ‘green’ is an issue that people care about and resonate with, and because of that it’s made it much easier for social businesses to get credit and to be seen as an important aspect of the economy,” he says.
Governments are now making green jobs a priority and investing in an ecology of sustainable business enterprise, Tom points out, and that’s because society now demands it.
“The topic has gone out there and become mainstream, and I think when you mainstream a topic, that’s when things get very exciting for a movement.”
Tom will be speaking at SVN's Fall Conference November 14-17. Resister now
www.svn.org/fall2012.
If you have questions, comments or a story to share, please contact kristian(at)axiomnews.ca.
Axiom News provides Stakeholder News to SVN. To read more news stories, click here.
