MINNEAPOLIS, MN--What could your school do with $2,500? Plenty, as Malt-O-Meal® and TerraCycle® found out through their Greenest Classroom contest, which invited schools across the country to submit their best ideas on how to make their classroom the most earth-friendly for a chance to win a $2,500 grant.
Inspired by Malt-O-Meal's new Bag The Box™ movement and its partnership with TerraCycle, the contest challenged entrants to submit their ideas and then vote for the classroom with the best earth-friendly concepts. The top 10 vote-getters were then narrowed down to four by a judging panel. The top prize of $2,500 went to River Place Elementary School (RPE) in Austin, TX, and the three first place winners included Don Roberts Elementary School in Little Rock, AR; UUCF-Circle of Life Cooperative Preschool in Frederick, MD; and Ridge and Valley Charter School in Blairstown, NJ who were each awarded $500.
Malt-O-Meal knows how to deliver a timely wakeup call.
Through its new Bag The Box movement, the cereal maker wants America to digest some jaw-dropping figures: It takes 345 million pounds of paperboard to make a year’s supply of cereal boxes. That’s equivalent to the weight of 734,747 jumbo jets. And every year, the United States produces 2.3 billion cereal boxes. That’s enough cardboard to build almost three great pyramids.
And there’s no reason for redundant packaging that comes with a bag of cereal inside of a box, says the company that packages most of its ready-to-eat cereals in resealable bags.
The playroom dollhouse fitted with model solar panels and a rain barrel gives one clue about the Circle of Life Cooperative Preschool's approach to conservation.
The recycling bins and compost piles only confirm the
Frederick preschool is the sort of place where a banana peel doesn't go to waste. The
school's efforts were acknowledged on Friday, when it earned a title as one of America's greenest classrooms.
Parents entered Circle of Life in a competition sponsored by Malt-O-Meal cereal and TerraCycle. They were surprised to learn the small school was one of the top 10 vote-getters on Facebook. Based on "green criteria," a panel of judges chose three first-place winners and a grand prize winner from the final 10 contenders.
The company is also conducting a consumer contest directed at classrooms with TerraCycle, which since 2009 has turned empty Malt-O-Meal bags into new products. The contest asked classrooms to show how they are helping the earth for a chance to win $2,500 for their school. The entry portion of the contest is now closed, but consumers can vote on the ideas through May 15 on Malt-O-Meal's Facebook page.
TerraCycle and Malt-O-Meal also have an ongoing program called the Cereal Bag Brigade. Consumers can send in empty cereal bags. TerraCycle will convert the bags into innovative products, including tote bags and park benches. For each cereal bag shipment sent to TerraCycle, consumers awarded TerraCycle points, which can be redeemed for a payment of $0.02 per bag for their school.
Big Rock Elementary has been participating in a program that utilizes many of the items that aren't typically recycled. TerraCycle, a New Jersey company, pays for the items collected and turns them into a variety of other products.
I recently joined TerraCycle’s Brigades. If you are not familiar with TerraCycle, you can read more about the company at
www.terracycle.net. TerraCycle started out selling compost in used soda bottles and now upcycles a number of products into backpacks, messenger bags, notebooks, trashcans, watering cans, benches, pavers, and much more. I believe this can be a great way for New Leaf Market members and friends to work together to develop a sense of community while achieving a positive result.
We have signed up for five brigades, collecting packaging from Kashi, Elmer’s Glue, Malt-O-Meal cereal bags, candy wrappers, and personal care and beauty products. Most items collected and sent to TerraCycle are worth 2 points. Points can be redeemed to buy clean water, meals, plant trees, and adopt land. You can find more details about what we can recycle with TerraCycle at
the Green Bay TerraCycle Brigade’s web site.
During the 2010-2011 school year, Big Rock Elementary School students and teachers have raised approximately $150 by collecting items that would normally have been thrown away as trash.
Another Recycling day is planned by Girl Scout Troop 3263 for September 11 at Market Square in South Hill. New items have been added to the recycling collection and the Recycle campaign will include collecting several different items (all trash) to help raise money and awareness for recycling and they have found a company that will pay us for our trash or you can drop it off at Airtec in South Hill. Some of the young ladies are earning awards with this project. Several of the items that we will be collecting are: Ink jet and toner cartridges, Newspapers, Magazines, And paper, Used drink pouches (ex Capri Sun), candy wrappers, chip bags, cookie wrapper, Gum Packages, Cell Phones, Scott Toilet Paper wrappers, Kashi Packages, Used Neosporin tubes, Huggies Diaper wrappers, Malt-o-Meal cereal packages, Used Colgate Toothpaste tubes and boxes, Stonyfield Yogurt, Elmer’s Glue, Scotch Tape, and Phone Books. If you would like additional information please go to http://www.terracycle.net If you would like to register please make sure you list Girl Scout Troop #3263 as the charity. You do not have to register to participate in this event. You only need to register if you wish to mail the trash to the company directly, however, the troop is currently registered and the above trash is what we are in need of to help this troop start saving the planet.
As a parent, you'd like your home, community and chidren's schools to be greener. Unfortunately, daily life can get in the way of that. You have limited time and budget in which to make the world around you a more sustainable place.
