Five bins and food tumbler keep waste, packages out of landfill.

A few times per month, a separate set of students get together to count the plastic bags and juice containers that students drop off at the end of lunch. The school sends the waste materials to TerraCycle, a New Jersey company that fashions a range of products — including toys, backpacks and pet products — from the waste it receives as part of the company’s Upcycling program. “It saves the trash from going to the landfill,” said 10-year-old Vincent Scott. When students have collected 500 juice pouches, cleaned them and packed them, the school mails them to TerraCycle. The schools gets 2 cents apiece in return, and TerraCycle pays the postage.