LOWELL -- The YWCA Green Team started without a name. As a small group of committed youth and staff volunteers, they piloted recycling efforts at the 2000 Lowell Folk Festival. Today, 12 years later, the group is about to surmount the half-million mark in recycled beverage containers -- plastic soda, water, sports drink and juice bottles, as well as metal soda cans and plastic No. 6 PS drinking cups. Working closely with Lowell's Solid Waste and Recycling Office, the Green Team formalized its name in 2008. Now, in addition to the Lowell Folk Festival, the Green Team assists with recycling at a variety of events, including the Textile River Regatta, National Night Out and the Bay State Marathon. The Green Team has also forged relationships with approximately 20 local nonprofit, municipal and private organizations. The partnerships establish recycling drop-off stations and provides on-call pick up of their recyclables -- like toner cartridges, cellphones, button-cell batteries and bottles and cans. Some of the valuable partners include Merrimack River Valley House, the American Textile History Museum, Community Team Work Inc., various Lowell municipal offices, The Boys and Girls Club, Miracle Ear and the Lowell Teen Coalition. Most recently, the Green Team has started collecting and recycling yogurt/dairy tubs. One of the most prized partnerships has been forged with Coca-Cola of New England in Lowell. The local Coke facility has generously accepted all collected noncarbonated No. 1 PET plastic (nonnickel) bottles -- including those of a competitor bottling company -- that the Green Team has collected at the Lowell Spinners baseball home games, nearly 10,000 bottles and cans from this season alone.