Beginning Sunday, April 17 and running through Saturday, April 23, customers can trade in their used writing instruments, regardless of brand, to any Office Depot retail store location nationwide. In exchange for ten pens, pencils or markers, customers will receive a coupon toward a new product from Newell Rubbermaid Office Products, maker of Sharpie®, EXPO®, Paper Mate® and more. The collected instruments will be sent to TerraCycle, the pioneering upcycling and recycling company, to be turned into new office supply products ranging from trash cans to desk organizers.
Customers Who Bring 10 Used Writing Instruments To Office Depot To Be Recycled Will Receive A Coupon To Use Toward A New Sharpie®, EXPO®, Or Paper Mate® Product
BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Office Depot (NYSE: ODP), celebrating 25 years as a leading global provider of
office supplies and services, together with TerraCycle, Inc. will be offering customers a unique recycling opportunity during Earth Month.
Beginning Sunday, April 17 and running through Saturday, April 23, customers can trade in their used writing instruments, regardless of brand, to any Office Depot retail store location nationwide. In exchange for ten pens, pencils or markers, customers will receive a coupon toward a new product from Newell Rubbermaid Office Products, maker of Sharpie®, EXPO®, Paper Mate® and more. The collected instruments will be sent to TerraCycle, the pioneering upcycling and recycling company, to be turned into new office supply products ranging from trash cans to desk organizers.
Office Depot announced that, from April 17 through April 23, it is inviting customers to trade in their used writing instruments regardless of brand to any of its retail stores nationwide. In exchange for ten pens, pencils or markers, customers will receive a coupon toward a new product from Newell Rubbermaid Office Products. The collected instruments will be sent to TerraCycle to be turned into new office supply products ranging from trash cans to desk organizers.
Ran out of ink? Do not throw away that used pen, though. Three major writing brands are encouraging the public to reuse pens, markers and other used writing instruments through a recycling program with a social conscience. Newell Rubbermaid Office Products, maker of Sharpie, EXPO and Paper Mate products, has partnered with upcycling company TerraCyle to launch the unique program. Instead of throwing away your old pens, bring them to collection centers called Writing Instrument Brigades which will be set up at participating locales. TerraCvcle will then dissemble or reprocess the collected instruments to make new products. In turn, Newell Rubbermaid will give two cents to a school, community group, charity or nonprofit organization of the participant’s choice for every writing instrument collected. Overall, the collection efforts will reduce landfill proliferation, educate and inspire consumers to get involved and provide much needed funding to schools and nonprofit groups nationwide. "Keeping one pen or marker out of a landfill may seem like a small contribution, but multiply that by the estimated $5 billion writing instruments sold in the United States each year and it is a big opportunity to reduce waste to landfills," said Ben Gadbois, president of Newell Rubbermaid which produces markers, highlighters, art and office essentials. "TerraCycle offers us an innovative way to repurpose writing instruments after their useful life has expired," he added. Interested parties may sign up with TerraCycle to establish a Brigade location and then select the school, charity or nonprofit group to which they want their collection funds directed. Each Brigade prints a prepaid shipping label from TerraCycle's website to ship the collected writing instruments to TerraCycle.
- Katrice R. Jalbuena
No matter how good your company’s intentions when it comes to recycling as many items as possible to keep them out of landfills, there are some common office items that CANNOT currently be sent to recyclers. Stuff you might find in your desk drawer like pens, highlighter, glue sticks.
That’s why TerraCycle <
http://www.terracycle.net/> , which makes products made out of things like this, is turning up the heat on what it calls its Office Product Brigades program. The initiative collects at least some of these things, earning your business a bit of a charitable deduction along the way.
Here’s the pitch: For every writing implement, tape dispenser or glue bottle you return (regardless of the brand), TerraCycle will donate 2 cents to the charity of your choice. TerraCycle will pick up the shipping costs for boxes of whatever you send in.
The clipboard to the right is an example of the sorts of things that TerraCycle makes out of what you send in. (The item in question happens to be made out of old circuit boards.) <
http://i.bnet.com/blogs/circuitboardclipboard.jpg>
TerraCycle’s partners in the Office Products Brigades program are 3M, Elmer’s Products, Papermaete, Sharpie and Scotch Tape. (Although as I mentioned before, it doesn’t matter what kind of stuff you turn in.)
Even BEFORE this program was launched, TerraCycle has collected more than 250,000 pens, markers, glue bottles, spent tape dispensers and such from landfills.
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