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,

This spring, the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) will become a TerraCycle collection site, joining thousands of other organizations around the world in diverting waste from landfills.

Making recycling fun, rewarding and lucrative might be a few keys to reducing the amount of trash dumped in landfills. To that end, TerraCycle, a company in New Jersey, put on its Solo Summer Celebration contest, inspiring Cheryl Collins of Santa Rosa to collect over 21,000 plastic #6 cups. As a victor and a collector, Collins was able to raise about $1,200 for the Forestville based charity, Paws As Loving Support (PALS), an organization that provides assistance dogs for children with Autism. “I think what TerraCycle does is pretty awesome,” said Collins about the nationwide recycling contest she won.

St. Gregory the Great Episcopal Church in Athens is hosting its first TerraCycle Triathlon of Trash through Aug. 15. The community is asked to gather trash from the list included here below and bring it to the TerraCycle Triathlon of Trash Showdown on Aug. 16 at a location to be determined. The person that brings the most trash, by weight, will win a free semester at the University of Georgia — in-state tuition only, estimated at $3,800. Trash that will be accepted includes: Drink pouches, straws and straw wrappers, coffee pouches, cookie and cracker wrappers, energy bar, breakfast bar and energy food wrappers, candy and gum wrappers, chip and pretzel bags, all lunch kit trays and wrappers, dairy containers, Sprout brand baby food and crushed fruit bags, containers and wrappers, cereal bags, Bear Naked brand granola and cereal product wrappers, wine corks, disposable household tape dispensers, plastic sandwich bags and temporary plastic containers. Also, wrappers from toilet paper, napkins and paper towels, toothpaste tubes, dental floss devices and used toothbrushes, glue containers and glue sticks, all writing instruments except chalk and crayons, beauty and skin care product tubes and containers, diaper wrappers, cheese wrappers, tortilla, tostada and bread wrappers, home cleaning containers and items, plastic drinking cups, laundry and dish wash detergent briquette bags, wine pouches, hummus containers and cigarette and cigar waste including ashes, unburnt tobacco, filter stubs, plastic outer wrap and aluminum paper inner wrapping. St. Gregory also will accept all cellphones, MP3 players, digital cameras, GPS systems, calculators, printer and toner cartridges and laptop computers including all cords and chargers, and all shoes. For information on how to package the trash, about the competition, about TerraCycle and more, call Andrew Lane at (706) 296-6631 or emailandrew.s.lane@us.army.mil.

The Swigert Daisies have started a Terracycle program in our cafeteria.  If you are unfamiliar with Terracycle, check the out here: www.terracycle.com.  Terracycle reduces waste by recycling many items that are not traditionally able to be recycled.

Green Teams! If you haven't already heard, there's a new, fun way to recycle products you've never been able to recycle before. It's called Terracycle! Terracycle is a company with a goal “to help eliminate the idea of waste." It works by establishing new waste collection programs they call "Brigades." Brigades are teams of people -- friends, co-workers, families, etc. -- that are registered with Terracycle to focus on and round up certain kinds of non-recyclable waste that the company can convert into new products. They can turn Capri-Sun juice pouches into shoulder bags or circuitboards into clipboards and everything in between.

In addition, the club has launched a number of recycling efforts through Terracycle.net.  Students have created collection stations throughout the school into which things like drink pouches and foil energy-bar wrappers are stuffed. The wrappers are shipped to Terracycle free of charge and are recycled and/or repurposed into new items. In addition to reducing waste, the school receives a donation of 2 cents for each item sent in. The school has collected approximately 4,000 drink pouches!