TERRACYCLE NEWS

ELIMINATING THE IDEA OF WASTE®

Posts with term dairy tubs X

Littlebrook Wins Young Audiences Funding For Creatively Green Arts Festival, June 12

TerraCycle lunch kits energy bar wrappers drink pouches Include USA dairy tubs TerraCycle Brigade programs snack bags
Littlebrook Elementary is one of six schools selected from 18 in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania to win a competitive award from the regional arts-in-education program, Young Audiences (YA) of New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania . This will be the first time the school will receive funding for an event that brings together art and recycling. Littlebrook has a tradition of bringing awareness of environmental issues into its classrooms. According to art teacher Colleen Dell, the school-wide festival will draw upon a collection of recycled materials that have been gathered for use in art activities. At Littlebrook, “every student has a hand in the planning, growing, harvesting, and general care of their school garden,” said Ms. Dell. “Our school has integrated garden activities into our student’s curriculum and is a member of TerraCycle as well as participants in the Green Schools Program, the Alliance To Save Energies, the Princeton Garden School Co-Op and Sustainable Princeton.” Through Terracycle “brigades,” Littlebrook students collect all types and brands of reusable containers, plus lids and foil tops. The school receives money in return for mailing these items to Terracycle. The money supports programs such as Littlebrook’s Joe Fund, which provides need-based scholarships for extracurricular activities and summer camp opportunities to any Littlebrook student in need. Ted Holsten, the ESL teacher and the school’s Terracycle coordinator, reports that in the past six years collections at the school have garnered $1,252 for the Joe Fund. Items collected, as of February 2014, include: 21,801 energy bars wrappers; 19,834 drink pouches; 7,731 dairy tubs; 7,563 snack bags; 2,670 candy wrappers; 2,239 cookie wrappers; 1,199 toner cartridges; 602 lunch kits … and the list goes on. In collaboration with Terracycle, the school has demonstrated ways in which small personal changes in habits can drastically impact the environment and community. Fifth graders have created public service announcements about the importance of TerraCycle collections. “The students learned iMovie on the ipad, did some research to plan their persuasive points and then churned out some very creative projects in science class with their science lab teacher, Mrs. Friend,” said Ms. Kosek,
Read More

Eco Heroes: Kids Making a Difference

TerraCycle candy wrappers Capri Sun (Kraft) Solo Include USA dairy tubs snack bags
Twelve-year-old Mathis LeBlanc of Massena, New York started collecting for TerraCycle's Drink Pouch Brigade in January, placing a container in his elementary school's cafeteria where kids can drop off their empty Capri Sun pouches. To date, Mathis has helped collect more than 11,000 drink pouches that he can send to TerraCycle at no cost, generating "points" that he can use to raise money for charity or his elementary school.
Read More

Columbus students reduce, reuse, recycle

Elmer's Include USA chip bags (Frito-Lay) energy bar wrappers (Clif) juice pouches (Capri Sun/Kraft Honest Kids/Coca-Cola) cheese packaging (Kraft) tortilla bags (Mission) dairy tubs writing instruments (Sanford) tape dispensers (3M)
By Starla Pointer Of the News-Register
Instead of tossing empty juice pouches and granola bar wrappers into the trash, Columbus Elementary School students are recycling them by sending them to a company that uses them to make new products. The project is good for the environment, good for the instructional program and good for the school, said CB Mason of the Columbus PTA. She collects the recycled packages and prepares them for shipping to Terracycle, the remanufacturing company. In return, Terracycle offers cash the school can use for educational activities or equipment, or points the school can exchange for the company’s products. This year, she said, Columbus is using points to “buy” pencil bags that will serve as prizes for winners of the jog-a-thon. Grandhaven Elementary School had been involved in Terracycle recycling projects in the past. Mason learned about that school’s successes and brought the idea to Columbus two years ago. At first, Columbus students recycled only aluminum and plastic juice pouches. It has collected more than 13,000 so far, picking them up at a clip of about 125 a week. Last year, an after-school recycling club added granola and energy bar wrappers. This year, it’s expanded to other food packaging —chip bags, salty snack bags, cheese packaging, tortilla and tortilla chip bags, and tubs and lids that held cream cheese, yogurt, butter and other dairy products. In addition, students also can recycle mechanical pencils, pens, markers, Elmer’s glue packages, plastic tape dispensers and tape cores. Used batteries are being collected separately. PTA members will take them to local hazardous waste collection events. Teachers and staff members taught their students about the recycling project, explaining what could be recycled and how to do it. Students drop items into marked bins in the cafeteria, often encouraging one another to recycle rather than throwing things away. “My fourth-grader, Isaac, will see a friend with a package and tell him he can put it in the Terracycle box. A lot of kids do that,” Mason said. The PTA volunteer collects the recyclables on Fridays, spending about 30 minutes a week on the project. “It’s cumbersome to some extent, but I remind myself every week that we’re taking things out of the waste stream and earning a little money for the school. “And usually, several kids from Kids on the Block want to help,” she said. “The kids are pretty excited.” More information about the recycled materials company can be found at www.terracycle.com.
Read More