It’s June, and that means the end of the school year is near. I am dedicating this month’s column to one of our local schools for going above and beyond with recycling and sustainable practices. It is my hope that the Gray’s Woods Elementary School can serve as a model for other schools in Centre County. When the Gray’s Woods Elementary Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) met last fall, it was evident that they wanted to ramp up the school’s recycling program. Gray’s Woods had already been recycling paper, metal cans, plastic bottles and cardboard. The school was also collecting soda tabs that are donated to the Ronald McDonald House in Danville. However, they wanted to do more. I volunteered to be chairwoman of the recycling committee, and we started full speed ahead. One of the first new initiatives was to integrate the “TerraCycle Brigades” program. We set up recycling collection bins for the following “hard to recycle” items: paired shoes & flip flops, empty glue sticks, old writing instruments and empty tape dispensers. Once we collected enough of each item, they were mailed to TerraCycle (free of charge) to be recycled. TerraCycle offers reward points for each item. The points can be donated as cash to a charity of the school’s choice. Many local schools and churches participate in TerraCycle Brigades. More information can be found at www.terracycle.com. In addition to the TerraCycle program, recycling bins were set up to collect miscellaneous plastics, lids/caps and plastic bags. When the bins were full, I took the items to work to be incorporated into the county’s recycling program. One great thing about the Gray’s Woods Elementary recycling program is that it’s open to Gray’s Woods families. Parents can send recyclables to school with their child to add to the school’s items. If your school would like to learn about incorporating more recycling into the mix, please contact me at amyschirf@uplink.net, and we can work on it.