Local Utah Valley elementary school triples its P.E. budget by recycling with TerraCycle. Daily Herald Final

Two Chandler school take part in the Drink Pouch Brigade to earn money and win prizes for their school. SunTan Sun final

TV clip on student who handles recycling at her school.

Richard Maghakian Memorial School students are cleaning up the environment and earning money for their school. By simply collecting drink pouches from the lunchroom or classroom, Richard Maghakian Memorial School students can win playgrounds, park benches and recycling bins for their school or community. The school participates in the Drink Pouch Brigade, a free recycling program for individuals or groups from Capri Sun and eco-pioneer TerraCycle. To mark the milestone of almost 200 million drink pouches collected and almost $4 million given to charity since the start of the program six years ago, Capri Sun is increasing the prizes and benefits of recycling through the program. In addition to earning money for each drink pouch collected and sent to TerraCycle, schools can now win prizes made from recycle drink pouches, like park benches, recycling bins and more. “As the Drink Pouch Brigade reaches its sixth year, we are thrilled Capri Sun is giving dedicated collectors even more to look forward to this school year,” said Tom Szaky, CEO, TerraCycle. “We hope the prizes will encourage people to keep even more waste out of landfills and get the larger community involved.” Richard Maghakian Memorial School is one of thousands of schools across the country that participate in the Drink Pouch Brigade. To learn more about or sign up for the program, visit www.terracycle.com. The program is free to any interested organization or individual, and all shipping costs are paid.  

A group called TerraCycle has made a small dent in the waste stream of laminates lsuch as pouches and toothpaste tubes by offering free mail-in collection of Capri Sun and similar unrecyclables, which it reuses and downcycles.

The Alpine Montessori School and Brewster County Twin Peaks 4-H Club are collecting items and sending them to TerraCycle to be repurposed into new products.

In previous years, the program had students save their Capri Sun containers to send to TerraCycle, which turned the containers into colorful wallets and sent the school money in return, which they saved up to use to protect a turtle nest in El Salvador.

TerraCycle works with more than 100 major brands in the U.S. to collect used packaging and traditionally non-recyclable waste that would otherwise be destined for landfills. It re-purposes that waste (that others deem as garbage) into new, innovative materials and products that are available for purchase online and through major retailers.

"We send our plastic bags, wrappers, Capri Sun containers to Terra Cycle in New Jersey. They pay us for it and then they use it to make other things people can use," explained Ashlynn Moffat, another third-grader on the Green Team at the elementary school in Ms. Burke's class.

After our factory tour we headed into the kitchen to meet with a representative with TerraCycle. TerraCycle turns waste into usable products. One of the brands they work with a lot of Capri Sun. Instead of tossing the empty pouches into the landfills they can be turned into a variety of products from furniture to tote bags.