Students are consistently recycling at Orville C. Krause Later Elementary School, and they’re earning money for it. As of June 30, they have reached the second level of TerraCycle and Capri Sun’s Drink Pouch Brigade milestone contest by collecting more than 18,000 drink pouches for a total of $2,500. “This is a wonderful program. We earn two points per pouch as long as the shipment is more than five pounds and they will pay more for shipments more than 58 pounds, but we try not to let them sit that long,” said Veronica Burell, president of the Tiger Cub Boosters, a non-profit volunteer parent group. The Drink Pouch Brigade is a free recycling program that rewards people for collecting and sending their waste to TerraCycle to be recycled or upcycled. The milestone program began in September 2013 when Capri Sun added prizes for collecting certain amounts of pouches. Now, in addition to the money they earn for each piece of waste collected, participants can win prizes made from recycled drink pouches such as park benches, recycling bins, a playground and other fun rewards. "The milestone program is meant to inspire individuals and organizations to collect more waste while receiving prizes for their achievements," said Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, in a press release. "It is rewarding to see the students and administration, get so involved in making this work. It’s an incredible achievement to have kept so many pouches out of the waste stream." TerraCycle Inc. is an international upcycling and recycling company that takes difficult-to-recycle packaging and turns it into affordable, innovative products. Founded in 2001, TerraCycle is the world’s leader in the collection and reuse of non-recyclable post-consumer waste. “The program is easy and doesn’t take much time. The whole school is involved. The ladies in the cafeteria have a box set up for the kids with a bucket next to it. They empty any remaining juice into the bucket and throw the pouch in the box. When the box is full, the janitor puts the bag in the Tiger Cub Boosters room and we rinse and throw them into a box lined with a plastic bag for mailing,” said Burell. Since joining the program in 2009, the school has earned $2,568.28 and has sent in 130,935 pouches. “I took over the program this past school year and for the most part we would ship one to two boxes a month. We earned just over $800 this year alone,” said Burrell. “It’s not about earning money. It’s more about realizing the importance of recycling.”