Columbus Jewish Day School students this year have collected more than 3,000 beauty-product containers to recycle through a company named TerraCycle. The schoolwide recycling program began five years ago when fifth- and sixth-grade Judaic studies teacher Eva Tibor said she encouraged students to recycle their empty juice pouches. Tibor said the school expanded the program and began recycling energy-bar wrappers and containers for food and beauty products.
Woodridge Elementary School students have earned $1,100 for the school by collecting more than 10,000 drink pouches. The school competed in TerraCycle and Capri Sun’s Drink Pouch Brigade contest. The program rewards people who collect and send their waste to TerraCycle to be recycled or upcycled.
Launched in September, Wassom has partnered with TerraCycle, an international upcycling and recycling company that collects difficult-to-recycle packaging and products and repurposes the material into affordable, innovative products, according to
terracycle.com.
The Frank K. Hehnly Elementary School Recycling Crusaders consist of 35 fifth grade students. The Crusader advisors are second grade teacher, AnnMarie Estevez, and computer teacher, Diane Rizzo.
The students encourage the entire school to use the recycling bins outside of the classrooms. They meet twice a week to go through the bins to clean, box up, and mail various items for recycling: drink pouches, recycled cell phones and ink cartridges are sent to Terracycle; bottle caps are sent to Aveda; soda tabs are sent to the Ronald McDonald House.
The students also have a recycling question of the week. The whole school is involved and has a chance to answer the question. On Friday three students are picked and win a prize.
The fifth graders have enjoyed working all year with the recycling program and making a difference in taking care of the Earth.
How do newbies perceive your parent group? A new volunteer’s insightful look at how others view the PTO.
As my oldest child boarded the bus on her first day of kindergarten, I was very emotional and full of questions. Would she make friends? Would she like her teacher? How would I fit into this new chapter of her life?
As a stay-at-home mom of three (including a very active 1-year-old), I knew I wouldn’t be able to volunteer during school hours or help with events on weeknights. Luckily, the PTO had effective strategies for reaching out to new parents that helped me get involved and feel connected to the school.
When school started, words like Box Tops for Education, winter fair, and TerraCycle were all new to my vocabulary. A cheat sheet supplied by the PTO explained what these fundraisers were and how they worked. Soon I was clipping box tops, saving drink pouches, and looking forward to the family activities offered at the school.
The PTO offered a wide variety of volunteer opportunities, including several jobs that could be done from home. I volunteered to help with the publishing center, which produces bound copies of student-written books. A few weeks after I signed up, handwritten books were sent home in my daughter’s backpack along with clear directions, samples, and paper for this task. Each book took approximately 10 minutes to type and print out. I could easily type up books during naptime or other lulls in our household.
It was fun to prepare the books, and because I was never given more than five books at a time, I never felt overwhelmed by the task. Throughout the year, I typed up a total of 25 books. I appreciated the fact that the PTO had a meaningful way for me to participate despite my limited availability.
I also liked that the PTO used email as its main form of communication, cutting down on the paperwork that came home from school. It was clear to me as a parent that the PTO used great discretion in sending out these emails, minimizing the number of messages and keeping them brief. Because I knew emails from the PTO contained vital information about things happening at school, I actually read them when they arrived in my inbox!
Email also gave me a comfortable way to interact with people I hadn’t yet met. We had just moved to a new town, and it was daunting to meet so many new people; email gave me anonymity to ponder the choices and decide where to help without having to respond to each request in person.
After any event or fundraiser, our PTO thanked volunteers and reported on the success of the event. As a newbie, I had wondered if anyone even noticed that I worked the spin art booth for two hours at the fall festival. Getting an email the next day helped me feel even better about how I helped the PTO. And when they explained the specific ways a fundraiser benefited the school, such as providing funding for family fun nights and teacher appreciation dinners, I could see how my involvement made a difference.
This year, as my daughter gets on the bus for 1st grade, I’ll be looking forward to volunteering for more programs. In addition to helping with the publishing center, I’m thinking about helping out with the winter fair and teacher appreciation dinners. And I know that the PTO will help me stay connected with the school, whatever role I take in the group.
Theresa Rosenberg is a PTO volunteer at Cornwall Elementary in Lebanon, Pa.
I Found this Great Fund Raising Program
Get 2 Cents For Your School Or Charity
For Every Drink Pouch, Cookie, Frito Lay Product, Candy Bar Wrapper, Empty Colgate Oral Care Product Etc. (See Brigades) You Send To TerraCycle.
TerraCycle Inc.
121 New York Ave. Trenton, NJ 08638
General Phone: 609.393.4252
Fax: 609.393.4259
For All My Friends And Good People Everywhere
♥For All My Friends And Good People Everywhere♥: Get 2 Cents For Your School Or Charity
For Every Drink Pouch, Cookie, Frito Lay Product, Candy Bar Wrapper, Empty Colgate Oral Care Product Etc. (See Brigades) You Send To TerraCycle.
A good thing for schools and charities everywhere and for the City of Trenton, New Jersey.
TerraCycle Inc.
TerraCycle Website
Gegan Elementary:
Families are asked to save any kind of juice pouch (not juice boxes) and bring them to the collection center in the front lobby. The pouches do not have to be washed, just empty and in a plastic bag. The Parent-Teacher Organization will ship them to the Drink Pouch Brigade and TerraCycle. The minimum number of pouches needed is 1,001.
Did you know that 99 percent of the total material flow in the United States becomes garbage within six months? Garbage goes to landfills where it releases carbon emissions that have a negative impact on the environment. Technically, some “non-recyclable” materials can be recycled, but they must be collected, sorted and brought to special recycling facilities which process them differently from traditional recycleable materials such as glass, metal, paper and plastic.
Belle Aire School students recently participated in a “Trash for Cash” program. Belle Aire works with a company called Terracycle to collect these hard-to-recycle items such as used juice pouch containers, used beauty product packaging and diaper packaging.
The school receives about 2 cents per item shipped to Terracycle. The company then uses these things to make new products. The items are kept out of landfills and the Belle Aire PTA earns a little bit of cash to support its programs.
