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.”

KELLER - Willis Lane Elementary recently earned designation as a Green Ribbon School because its students are practicing earth-friendly behavior, getting regular exercise and enjoying the great outdoors.   As the school community worked at recycling, reducing waste and fitness, students took some of those habits home with them. For Eco-Campus, a focus on conserving resources and recycling, Willis Lane officials promoted a "Waste Free Lunch and Snack Week" that encouraged kids to bring food in reusable containers. They also had an emphasis on recycling, starting up a new program with Terracycle to recycle lunch kits, drink pouches and other items, adding more bins around the school and allowing parents to recycle old computers, batteries, small appliances and other electronics.   Willis Lane Principal Cheryl Hudson said, "It took them from everyone recycling paper to we can recycle a water bottle, Capri Sun pouch, a Lunchables container and a lot more."

Hi Tonda Families! It’s that time again… Terracycle Time! For those who are new to our school, let me explain. Terracycle is a recycling company that will “reward” us for recycling. We belong to 3 different “brigades”… Drink Pouches, Candy Wrappers and Bags (no cardboard candy boxes) and Lunchable containers. They accept ALL BRANDS from every brigade- even generic store brands. Three labeled bins are located in the cafeteria on the stage, for the children to put their items in after lunch. Please remind them to empty all food pieces and drink pouches as much as they can before placing them into their respective bins. Once we have enough of each, the items are shipped to Terracycle (free of charge), earning money for the school. Last year we were able to recycle enough from all of the brigades to collect $123! We generally receive $0.02-$0.05 for each item. It may not seem like a lot right now, but it can quickly add up. **New this year: we now need to send in at least 2000 drink pouches every 6 months to receive any money back (we have only until late December to send these in). PLEASE save all you can! Send them back with your child(ren) after a weekend of sporting events, scouts, parties etc. They DO NOT need to be completed washed out- just empty them as much as you can. This has been a great way to earn money for our school while teaching the children about the importance of recycling and saving the Earth

New Campaign Pledges Up to $100,000 to Boys & Girls Clubs of America

  MADISON, Wis., Aug. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lunchables Lunch Combinations team is challenging America to help all kids have the opportunity to "Never Be Bored Again."  Today, the brand partnered with actress and celebrity mom, Tori Spelling, to launch a national campaign that will fund up to $100,000 to Boys & Girls Clubs of America and their sport and recreation programs.   Spelling and the Lunchables team invite families to capture photos of boredom-busting activities and share them by visiting the "Never Be Bored Again" application at Facebook.com/Lunchables. Every photo that's uploaded from today through October 15, 2012, will generate a $1 donation to Boys & Girls Clubs across America, up to $100,000, to help amp up the fun.  After uploading their photo, consumers will receive a $1-off coupon for new Lunchables with Smoothie, while supplies last.

TerraCycling began as a process that turns worn waste products and packages into reused containers using fertilizer, worms, and compostation. In 2007, TerraCycle changed their business plan slightly. They began producing pouches, bags, and accessories made from up-cycled drink pouches and candy wrappers. Larger items that were non-recyclable were also up-cycled and used to create flowerpots, plastic lumber, pavers, benches, and garbage pails.

As a proactive way to help the environment and also raise money for charity, Saint Xavier University students are being highly encouraged to take part in the university’s terracycling efforts. Although the terracycling program has already had a strong presence at the university, one of the program’s main organizers— Mercy Students for Peace and Justice (MSPJ)—would like SXU students to become more informed on what exactly terracycling is. “It’s a program created to recycle things that normally aren’t recyclable,” said Rachael Dean, president of MSPJ, as she briefly summed up the main purpose ofterracycling. Besides mentioning the program’s main mission, Dean also further commented on what occurs to the items that are collected through theterracycling bins. “We collect all these items and we send them to the company. The company then sorts through it and they make things out of what we gave them,” said Dean. The terracycling program, as Dean said, creates different items from many of the things that have been put into its bins. Several of the items manufactured include pouches, backpacks, totes and even notebooks.

St. Joseph School recently won second place in TerraCycle’s Winter Waste Wonderland competition, a national contest. As the second-highest collector of lunch kits in TerraCycle’s Lunch Kit Brigade, St. Joseph School will receive 10,000 bonus points, which it can redeem for $100 cash. TerraCycle pioneered the concept of “upcycling,” which is taking materials that would otherwise be trash and converting them into other products by maintaining or improving the quality of the material. So for instance, Oreo cookie wrappers, have been turned into kites and juice pouches have been turned into pencil cases. Eighth grade parent Danielle Mergner has spearheaded St. Joseph’s TerraCycle program this year, recruiting the eighth graders to help direct the younger students in sorting their TerraCycle items and then in packaging them for shipment.

For local students, collecting cans and bottles is more than a lesson about recycling, it’s about giving back to their school and community while helping the environment. Students at Poston Road and Paragon elementary schools have been hard at work collecting cans, bottles and other recyclables as part of a project for their high achievement class. The Poston Road program, a collaborative effort between students and recycling organizations TerraCycle and the Dream Machine Recycle Rally, combines the best of both worlds: Helping the environment while working toward the purchase of school equipment, program sponsor Donna Lehmann said. “Our high ability students are the ones really getting it up and going,” Lehmann said. “One of our students, Asher (Markita) and I were the only ones scanning the cans and bottles to start.” The program began with TerraCycle, a recycling company based in New Jersey, which allowed the students to collect normally non-recyclable trash such as Caprisun juice pouches, lunchables and chip bags, and ship them to TerraCycle for free and earn money for the school.