Doing their part: Linton Springs Green Team spearheading change
TerraCycle Include USA
Each week, members of the Recycling Team of The Green Team gather all the drink pouches, squeeze out the excess liquid and count them. They are participating in TerraCycle's Drink Pouch Brigade, an initiative to allow schools and nonprofits to recycle drink pouches and earn money for their schools and organizations. So far they have received more than $300. They intend to use the money to help with the community garden that The Green Team will be building this spring.
Fourth-grader Joe Seese said he thought "it is a great way to earn money for the garden because everyone brings them for lunch."
Haerbig, however, said it is "a gross job and you go home covered in juice and smelling like fermented grape juice." But she was quick to add that all the students who count the pouches volunteered for the job. Their best week was 2,500 pouches.
The fourth-graders also recycle their food wastes, putting them into a compost heap built by the team last spring. A new initiative to recycle the plasticware is also being piloted by fourth-graders.