PTO is excited to announce that our school is going GREEN! We teamed up with a program called TERRACYCLE.  We are going to be collecting a number of items to recycle and earn CASH.  Each classroom will have a bin to place collected items, which may be brought from home or just saved from lunch/snacks at school.  Please consider getting involved as we strive to make God’s creation a beautiful masterpiece one community at a time.  Below is a list of all items we are going to collect.  PTO will keep everyone informed throw here as to our progress throughout the year.

Under the leadership of volunteer Sarah Martin, and University of Maine at Farmington intern Joe Dignam, TerraCycle was launched. In this program various products -- from shampoo bottles to foil-lined granola bar wrappers -- are sent to TerraCycle headquarters in New Jersey where they are recycled into other products or up-cycled into functional art such as juice box tote bags. TerraCycle pays money for the products that are shipped to them so the environment and United Way benefits.

What can you do with candy wrappers, worn out flip flops, or the box from your toothpaste? You can upcycle it! TerraCycle’s goal is to eliminate the idea of waste by creating national recycling systems for previously non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste. Anyone can sign up for these programs and start sending them some of your waste on their list. Some of the waste that is collected includes things that a lot of use every day including: energy bar wrappers chip bag wrappers toothpaste boxes corks flip flops cleaner packaging cell phones candy wrappers drink boxes TerraCycle will then use your garbage to make a wide variety of products and materials which includes bags umbrellas, clipboards, plastic planters, and purses. The program has gotten lots of support, and over 20 million people collect waste in over 20 countries. With the programs, TerraCycle has collected billions of units of useful trash and used it to create over 1,500 different products which are available at major retailers ranging from Walmart to Whole Foods.

No one likes tests, but last week kids at Montclair’s Charles H. Bullock School were treated with healthy snacks from Clif Bar during NJASK testing.  “Yum!”, “Delicious!”, and “Really good!” were several ways Charles H. Bullock School (CHB) students described their treats, which were donated by Clif Bar, one of the only private, sustainable and organic energy bar companies. “Since intense concentration requires a significant energy expenditure, refueling with foods containing high quality ingredients is key,” states Christine Langton, CHB’s school nurse.  “All of Clif Bar’s products have organic ingredients and are free of trans fats, hydrogenated oils, and high fructose corn syrup, making them an excellent snack choice.”

More than half of U.S. product packaging –37 million tons – is discarded in landfills or burned rather than recycled, and packaging comprises nearly one-third of all U.S. landfill waste (US EPA).  Terracycle is an innovative waste reduction solution that encourages producer responsibility for their packaging, and recycles or upcycles packaging and other hard-to-recycle or previously non-recyclable items. Terracycle partners with producers who sponsor specific “brigades” – like chip bags or writing instruments - whereby waste can be collected and re- or up-cycled. Further, Terracycle incentivizes participation by rewarding “points” for items collected that can then be used to support nonprofit organizations of our choice. Harvard has recently expanded single-brigade programs located at several individual sites on campus into a multi-brigade Terracycle program being piloted at Harvard Law School.  We hope to scale the program to become University-wide in the near future.  Harvard community members can now drop off many kinds of waste in bins located throughout the University. Collection of Terracycle items in managed through a partnership between the Office for Sustainability and Harvard Recycling and assisted by the LABBB program (http://www.labbb.com/). The “points” Harvard earns for the waste we collect are donated back to this program. While the total volume of waste collected through Harvard’s Terracycle program is small compared to the total amount we generate, recycle, and compost, Terracycle participates in a new model of voluntary producer responsibility for their environmental impacts.  This producer responsibility lies in contrast to the traditional model in which costs for landfilling packaging after a product is consumed are externalized by product manufacturers – and internalized by taxpayers. Rob Gogan, Harvard’s Recycling & Waste Manager, weighs in on why Terracycle matters: “What I like most about this program is that it involves the producers and TerraCycle has managed to get them to take on some of the responsibility for the next phase in the life of these materials and not pass the cost of disposal/recycling on to consumers.” Get involved today by collecting the waste below and bringing it to the Law School’s Wasserstein Caspersen Clinical building. Find bins on the first floor of the Caspersen Student Center under the ramp leading up to the café in and at the ITS helpdesk in the basement. Harvard’s Brigades (we hope to expand further as Terracycle’s wait list for other brigades opens up – check the Law School Green Team site frequently for an up-to-date list of all brigades):

• Oral care: Any brand toothpaste tubes, toothpaste caps, tooth brushes, floss containers.
• Personal care and beauty packaging: Any brand lipstick cases, mascara tubes, eye shadow cases, shampoo bottles, conditioner bottles, bronzer cases, foundation packaging, body wash containers, soap tubes, soap dispensers, lotion dispensers, shaving foam tubes (no cans), powder cases, lotion bottles, chap stick tubes, lotion tubes, face soap dispensers, face soap tubes, face lotion bottles, face lotion jars, eyeliner cases, eyeliner pencils, eyeshadow tubes, concealer tubes, concealer sticks, lip liner pencils, hand lotion tubes, hair gel tubes, hair paste jars.
• Energy bar wrappers: Any brand foil lined energy bar wrappers, foil lined granola bar wrappers, foil lined meal replacement bar wrappers, foil lined protein bar wrappers, foil lined diet bar wrappers. Clif SHOT wrappers, Clif Twisted Fruit Wrappers, Clif Roks Wrappers, Clif Bloks Wrappers, Clif Gels Wrappers.
• Elmer’s Glue products: Elmer's glue sticks, Elmer's glue bottles, and Elmer's glue tops.
• Tape products: Any brand plastic tape dispensers, plastic tape cores.
• Cheese packaging: Any brand string cheeses packages, individual singles wrappers, singles packages, shredded cheeses packages, grated cheese containers, creamed cheese packaging, cottage cheese tubs, all cheese wrappers.
• Drink pouches: Any Brand aluminum drink pouches, plastic drink pouches.
• Bear Naked packaging: Bear Naked granola bags, Bear Naked trail mix bags, Bear Naked Granola cookie boxes.
• Cookie Packaging: Any brand Cookie Wrappers, Cookie Bags, Individual Cookie Bags, Inner Plastic Trays.
• Chip Bags: Any brand chip bags, tortilla chip bags, pretzel bags, pita chip bags, bagel chip bags, soy crisp bags, salty snack bags.
• Writing Instruments: Any brand pens, pen caps, mechanical pencils, markers, marker caps, highlighters, highlighter caps, permanent markers, permanent markers caps.

Want a Terracycle bin for your office? Contact sustainability@lists.law.harvard.edu to learn more, or with any questions.

A Fusion Fitness, it's all about strengthening your heart, muscle and mind. But the workout studio at 12th and Sansom might want to add refueling the environment to the list. "Caring for your body, caring for your environment, I feel like are very much on the same wavelength," said Gavin Mckay, owner of Fusion Fitness.

TerraCycle’s food packaging recycling programs began with drink pouches. Those programs have expanded from Capri Sun and Honest Kids drink pouches, to Flavia Fresh Packs, Sprout baby food pouches, and Method Cleaner Refill packs. Clif Family Winery is soon launching a Brigade for their Climber Wine Pouches and other wine pouch packaging. Nowadays, pouches are in every aisle of every big-box retailer. They’re convenient, durable, lightweight, affordable, an all around “win”… that is until it is time to recycle them.

For today's post during this TerraCycle Refresher week on our blog, I'm sharing a list and description of what items we collect for TerraCycle here at Blue Ridge. Glue Bottles/Sticks Any size Elmer's brand glue sticks and plastic glue bottles are acceptable. Only Elmer's please! We earn $0.02 per item.ri

Step away from the trashcan! Leaving no trace just got easier — and cooler. Take your non-recycleable wrappers from products such as Kashi, Bear Naked and CLIF Bar and put them to good use through TerraCycle Brigade programs. Ship your wrappers to TerraCycle free of charge and they will award you points that you can use to buy a specific charity gift. They then turn your wrappers into cool eco-friendly, affordable products such as tote bags, coolers, notebooks, laptop cases and mini-speakers. Wrappers that aren’t upcycled into products are melted down and turned into plastics that are used in trash cans, flower pots and clipboards. The snacks you enjoy can become eco-friendly, long-life products that support your environment through TerraCycle.

One Simple Ask is dedicated to exploring the theory and practice of ethical consumerism. Over the past few months, our team has come across some outstanding companies that are truly walking the “green” marketing talk that permeates our consumer culture. One such company is TerraCycle, a small business headquartered in Trenton, New Jersey, that specializes in producing products from pre- and post-consumer materials that people send to the company. Over the years, TerraCycle has produced over 1,500 different products available at major retailers, including Walmart and Whole Foods Market. Below is a discussion I had with Megan Yarnall, the Senior Publicist at TerraCycle. What inspired the creation of Terracycle? TerraCycle’s creation was inspired by a blooming plant fertilized by worm poop and a business contest. Tom Szaky, the CEO of TerraCycle, visited a friend from home during a college break and discovered how well his friend’s plant was growing after being fertilized with worm poop. Tom happened to be entering a business plan contest at that time, and he realized that if he could figure out a viable way to produce and package worm poop in a bottle, worm poop fertilizer could be the basis for his business.