While eating lunch with her children at school, Tracy Romzek was shocked to see how much of the meal was thrown out. Not just the food, but the things that could be recycled, like milk cartons.
Romzek, 38, a Town of Menasha mother of two who has a master’s degree in environmental engineering, decided to research the best way to recycle the materials.
Then, she talked to the school principal and school district officials.
“I just saw something that could be done and chose to take action,” she said.
Romzek admitted she didn’t know what it would take to get a milk carton recycling program started. But once she took action at Clayton, it opened the door to other recycling possibilities and, ultimately, other schools in the district.
“It started as a carton thing but what it really turned out to be was cafeteria recycling,” she said, noting the program is currently implemented in all but one of Neenah’s elementary schools and at Horace Mann Middle School. She hopes to bring the program to Jefferson Elementary and Fox River Academy in Appleton.
She signed up for recycling brigades with TerraCycle, a free waste collection program for hard-to-recycle materials. Clayton now collects dairy containers like yogurt tubs, drink pouches, Scotch tape dispensers,
paper products, Solo cups, granola bar wrappers, cheese packaging and Lunchables containers, among other items.
“That is waste being upcycled,” she said. “These are things that are not traditionally recycled.”
Romzek also was awarded an environmental education grant from SCA Tissue, which allowed her to purchase containers and things needed for the recycling programs.
She hopes to encourage the schools to get away from bagging the recyclables. The milk cartons, she noted, cannot be tied up in a plastic bag or they will rot. She also sought a local facility, Fox River Fiber in DePere, to take away the materials.
“It’s pretty cool we have a local company that wants them,” she said.
She sees recycling as a cost-saving measure for the district.
“A third of the lunchroom waste is going into recycle rather than the garbage,” she said. “Recycling is cheaper to pick up than the garbage.”
Andrew Thorson, director of facilities and an engineer in the district, said he appreciates all Romzek has done.
“She’s very dedicated and she has a lot of energy to handle these things,” he said. “It’s very helpful to us that she can spend her time on that. We have the need but not necessarily the ability to do as much as she does.”
Romzek also thinks the recycling programs educate the children.
“A lot of these kids, once I showed them what can be recycled, they love it and they really try and they want to do the right thing,” she said, noting that by getting them “involved early on, they will care later.”
Norton — Through fundraising the Solmonese Parent Organization (SPO), of the J.C. Solmonese Elementary School, has been able to fill budget gaps and provide the school with necessary support over the years.
Annually the group raises approximately $15,000 it puts towards different projects at the school, according to SPO co-chairman Jill Bercovitch-Blake.
...
The SPO hosts two major fundraisers annually, a cookie-dough sale in the spring and the Muffin Meadow Contest, held at the JCS Fall Festival this past weekend.
Other ways the group raises funds is through recycling juice pouches in conjunction with
www.terracycle.net. They receive two to three cents for each pouch.
My husband looked over at me the other day and said, “Two years ago if you’d told me I’d be washing trash, I would have called you crazy.” Ah, but look at the crazies now. I discovered
TerraCycle while writing this blog. When I first started posting over a year ago, I complained about how frustrating it was finding food without the packaging. An intern at TerraCycle wrote back saying he might have the answer to our question.
And that we didn’t even have to wash the trash, just send it in.
Well, not quite. I’d still rather throw out zero waste than recycle it. But if I hit a weak moment and break down and buy the darn M&M’s (oh no! NOT the sugar!) or a bag of chips, I can at least know it’s being
up-cycled and not completely wasted. I watched a video
on what TerraCycle does with the products we send them and must say, it was impressive that someone took the time not only to think this up, but actually do something about it. And of course, it was a kid who started it. A 19-year-old kid with an idea. Our future is not lost!
I do find it frustrating that maybe the company isn’t big enough to receive all the recycling they wish. If I wanted to send in my items without paying the shipping myself or receive any points to reward myself for my time and effort, I had to be placed on a waiting list. I waited over a year and finally gave up, sending in almost two year’s worth of candy and chip bags (which really wasn’t that much as we’re only two people and not a huge company) to my niece’s school where they collect both chip bags and candy wrappers for TerraCycle. Her science teacher was thrilled.
So, I suppose there is good and bad in everything. Hurry up and wait.
Hey, at least someone is DOING something and not just talking. And I can give in now to a bag of sugar-filled, evil M&M’s every once in a while—without the guilt. Because life is short, damn it. And I really like M&M’s. I shouldn’t have to give up everything!
I bet a kid you knows goes to a school who might just be interested in TerraCycle, if they aren’t doing it already. Just an idea to pass on. To a teacher. A friend. A neighborhood kid…
While eating lunch with her children, Tracy Romzek was shocked to see how much of the meal was thrown out. Not just the food, but the other things that could be recycled, such as milk cartons.
“I had lunch with the kids and saw all the cartons being tossed out,” said Romzek, 38, a Town of Menasha mother of two.
Romzek, who has a master’s degree in environmental engineering, decided to research the best way to recycle the materials.
“I lived out in Washington state previously to moving here three years ago,” she said. “We always recycled cartons.”
She talked to the school principal and school district officials.
“I just saw something that could be done and chose to take action,” she said.
Romzek admitted she didn’t know what it would take to get a milk carton recycling program started. But once she took action at Clayton, it opened the door to other recycling possibilities and, ultimately, other schools in the district.
“It started as a carton thing but what it really turned out to be was cafeteria recycling,” she said, noting the program is currently implemented in all but one of Neenah’s elementary schools and at Horace Mann Middle School. She hopes to bring the program to Jefferson Elementary and Fox River Academy in Appleton.
She signed up for recycling brigades with TerraCycle, a free waste collection program for hard-to-recycle materials. Clayton now collects dairy containers like yogurt tubs, drink pouches, Scotch tape dispensers, paper products, Solo cups, granola bar wrappers, cheese packaging and Lunchables containers, among other items.
“That is waste being upcycled,” she said. “These are things that are not traditionally recycled.”
Romzek was also awarded an environmental education grant from SCA Tissue, which allowed her to purchase different containers and things needed for the recycling programs.
She hopes to encourage the schools to get away bagging the recyclables. The milks cartons, she noted, cannot be tied up in a plastic bag or they will rot. She also sought a local facility, Fox River Fiber in DePere, to take away the materials.
“It’s pretty cool we have a local company that wants them,” she said.
She sees recycling as a cost-saving measure for the district.
“A third of the lunchroom waste is going into recycle rather than the garbage,” she said. “Recycling is cheaper to pick up than the garbage.”
Andrew Thorson, director of facilities and an engineer in the district, said he appreciates all Romzek has done.
“She’s very dedicated and she has a lot of energy to handle these things,” he said. “It’s very helpful to us that she can spend her time on that. We have the need but not necessarily the ability to do as much as she does.”
Romzek also feels the recycling programs educate the kids.
“A lot of these kids, once I showed them what can be recycled, they love it and they really try and they want to do the right thing,” she said, noting that by getting them “involved early on, they will care later.”
TerraCycle is a company renowned for turning trash into treasure. Here's an inside look at the graffiti-clad warehouse in Trenton, N.J. where much of the upcycling magic happens.Late last week, I had the pleasure of touring the Trenton, N.J. offices of
TerraCycle, a “waste solution development” firm with the most admirable mission to "eliminate the idea of waste."
Unfamiliar with TerraCycle? Well, if you’ve ever seen or owned a
tote bag made from Dorito wrappers, a
coupon holder made from tortilla packaging, or a
Christmas tree skirt made from Capri Sun pouches, chances are that it came from TerraCycle. And, of course, there’s the company’s signature product, launched in 2001 by vermicomposting Princeton student-turned-eco-entrepreneur
Tom Szaky: liquefied
worm poop plant fertilizer packaged in recycled plastic two-liter soda bottles.
In addition to liquefied worm poop and trashy handbags, TerraCycle offers dozens upon dozens of additional consumer products made from
recycled and
upcycled materials ranging from
plastic lumber lawn furniture to
M&M’s wrapper kites. (More provocative prototype designs such as
wall clocks made from pregnancy tests and picture frames made from cigarette butts do exist, but don’t expect to find them on the shelves at your local Target ... at least, yet). Of the mostly pre-consumer waste collected by TerraCycle (more on that in a bit), 95 percent is recycled, 4 percent is upcycled, and 1 percent is reused. To date the company has collected over 2,432,696,434 units of waste.
So how does TerraCycle amass all the raw materials for their products? As mentioned, a majority is sent to TerraCycle as pre-consumer waste by various companies. The rest of it — the hard/impossible to recycle post-consumer waste that many folks end up tossing in the garbage — is largely collected through the company's popular
Brigades program. Most, but not all, Bridgades have
point-raising incentives and are often instituted as fundraising schemes at schools and nonprofit organizations. Alternately, the points earned through collecting waste and sending it to TerraCycle can also be used towards charitable contributions. TerraCycle Brigades span across a wide range of categories usually paired with a corporate sponsor:
Fllip-flops,
toothbrushes,
chip bags, wine pouches,
Solo cups,
printer cartridges,
energy bar wrappers, and the list goes on and on. Most recently, the company launched a
Tom’s of Maine Natural Care Brigade, which also entails a
sweepstakes.
For an eco-friendly storage option, reused vintage trunks are just what the doctor ordered, serving as a kitschy end table or coffee table while also providing you more space to put stuff. Yard sales and Craigslist are great places to find these. Other eco-friendly options include the Way Basics storage cubes (found at Bed, Bath and Beyond, Target, and Amazon) and Terracycle’s recycled plastic storage bin. I love the Way Basics cubes because you can mix and match the colors to suit any room or style. Of course, not to be outdone, the Container Store also has some eco-friendly storage options, many made from bamboo. And for even more eco-friendly storage options for your kitchen, don’t forget to check out MNN blogger Matt Hickman’s recent post.
3. Give candy wrappers a second life. If you simply must eat the candy Halloween brings—admittedly, most of us do—try something unique with those Snickers wrappers. For the craft-minded, take on a project like this colorful pouch or these cute barrettes. For a simple solution, send the trash to TerraCycle’s Candy Wrapper Brigade. The company, which donates two cents for every waste unit collected, takes wrappers of any size candy and from any brand. Poof, your garbage becomes a notebook, a tote bag, even a park bench. Since the Brigade began three years ago, nearly 5.5 million wrappers have been upcycled instead of heading to a landfill.
My “aha” moment was seeing so much waste in the dorms and cafeterias during college. The food and packaging discarded struck me as an environmental scourge, but also wasted opportunity. I realized making products from garbage would create a business with two revenue streams – collecting waste and selling recycled products!
