PTAs often combine fundraising efforts with service to the environment or community.  For example, Debra Johnson, president of Weyanoke PTA, has garnered funds through the collection of juice pouches and chip bags.  Sent to Terracycle.net to be “upcycled” into items like tote bags, they earn a few cents each.  The used flipflops they’ve collected will be turned into playground material. For Lisa Keyes and her PTA at Columbia ES, their efforts include helping families in need. “Some of the community events we are involved in are sponsoring a school supplies drive for families in our community, participating in a food drive to help stock a local food pantry, a coat and hat drive for our community,” she says.

Chipstüten, Filzstifte, Plastikfalschen. Alles landet irgendwann in Müll. Schadet, findet der Jungunternehmer, Tom Szaky.

TerraCycle hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, das Bild von Abfall zu revolutionieren. Die Organisation entwickelt Programme für Abfall-Materialien, die traditionell als nicht recycelbar gelten. Schulen können neu leere Schreibgeräte und Korrekturmittel kostenlos einsenden und erhalten als Gegenleistung...

My hatred of waste is well-documented in this space.  And yet I have much to learn and much to go in this area.  Tom Szaky's "Revolution in a Bottle," which is about his firm, Terracycle, explains that trash is a modern Western phenomenon and that it imposes significant costs on the planet in the form of massive amounts of undegradable materials in our landfills and even in the middle of our oceans.  I am reminded of my brother-in-law's extended family's plantation in southwestern India, which is completely sustainable in that it requires no running water or electricity and generates no waste. In contrast to that, my family easily generates one or two trash cans' worth of trash, plus two or three bins of recyclables, every week.  Not to mention the trash I throw out at work or anywhere else.  I am spurred on by Aaron's new teacher, who has a "zero trash" policy in the classroom (there are no trash cans) and who teaches her students about composting.  I may never get to "zero trash," and my wife still needs some convincing on the composting, but I am more aware, and I am taking baby steps.  I hope you will too.

Ab jetzt können alle Schreibgeräte und Korrekturmittel, egal welcher Marke, zu neuen nützlichen Produkten wie Giesskannen oder Stiftehalter recycelt werden. Dadurch hält das Programm Schreibgeräte von Müllverbrennungsanlagen und Mülldeponien fern und ersetzt den Bedarf an Neukunststoff, um neue Produkte herzustellen.

También recordaros que, a la vez, y para la misma causa, a través de TERRACYCLE, recogemos bolígrafos y rotuladores de plástico, usados. Las cajas de ambas recogidas se encuentran en el Hall del centro.