Loggerhead expects to recycle thousands of Halloween candy wrappers — how you can help
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The recycling drive, primarily at local schools but also at some community gathering points, will run through early November. Its goal is to encourage people to think critically about how much waste is produced during holidays.
JUNO BEACH — Through early November, Loggerhead Marinelife Center is offering an alternative to throwing away your Halloween candy wrappers.
The Juno Beach sea turtle rehab, research and conservation center is coordinating a wrapper recycling drive called Unwrap the Waves across 34 schools from Martin County to Miami-Dade and other drop-off points in Palm Beach County.
For the fourth year, Loggerhead staffers will collect the wrappers and send them to New Jersey-based recycling company TerraCycle, which will refashion them into school supplies and other goods.
The goal is to get people thinking critically about how much waste they create, particularly ahead of the year-end holiday season, said Lindsay French, Loggerhead’s STEM education coordinator.
“We’re trying to encourage people to reduce the waste they’re producing or buy things that have some more sustainable packaging,” French said.
Different wrappers are fine to be recycled at the drop-off points, French said. Everything from Hershey bars to Smarties, just make sure the candy is no longer inside and that it is a true candy wrapper — not packaging for snack bags, for instance, she said.
The project is particularly centered on schools, French said.
Recycling bags have already been dropped off to schools and will be collected Nov. 11, about the time the community drop-off points will stop accepting wrappers, French said.
French described it as a successful project that’s growing. Last year, Loggerhead collected more than 19,000 candy wrappers. They expect more this fall.
“By having kids collect these wrappers, they get a firsthand account of how much waste is produced in a single holiday,” French said.
Community drop-off points in Palm Beach County include: FPL’s Manatee Lagoon, Florida Atlantic University’s Pine Jog Environmental Education Center and Boca Raton’s Office of Sustainability at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center.
There also will be wrappers collected at Lion Country Safari’s Spooky Safari Halloween and Hobe Sound Nature Center’s Creepy Creature Feature, both on Saturday; Palm Beach Zoo’s Boo at the Zoo from Friday to Sunday; and at Sugar Sand Park’s Shriek Week from Thursday to Saturday.
Loggerhead Marinelife Center has published a list of participating schools on its website.