Students at BelovEd Community Charter School of Jersey City learned about recycling and about the power of the vote two weeks ago, after accumulating 178,303 playground credits to win the Recycled Playground Challenge, a contest put on by Colgate, ShopRite, and TerraCycle recycling.

BelovED Community Charter School in Jersey City, was the recipient of a new playground made from toothbrushes, toothpaste containers and other oral care waste. This playground worth $40,000 was made possible through Colgate, Shoprite, and TerraCycle.

Children at a New Jersey charter school are showing off the benefits of brushing and flossing their teeth– and it’s not just in their smiles. CBS2’s Elise Finch explains they won a recycling contest by saving old toothpaste tubes and dental floss containers. The Jersey City students of Beloved Community Charter School were all smiles as they raced around their brand new playground, complete with a side, monkey bars and mini climbing wall.

A brand new playground was awarded Tuesday to the students at BelovED Community Charter School of Jersey City through a promotion with Shoprite, Colgate and TerraCycle.

On the surface, the new playground that was unveiled yesterday morning at the BelovED Community Charter School in Jersey City looks like any other in the city. It receives the same reaction from kids, who looked at the slide and the monkey bars with wide eyes and big smiles. The playground, which is the first for the school, was built using recycled toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and floss containers. The school itself won the playground as part of the Recycled Playground Challenge, a competition that was set up by Colgate, ShopRite and the recycling company TerraCycle, which is based in Trenton.

A brand new playground was awarded Tuesday to the students at BelovED Community Charter School of Jersey City. The students were the winners of the “Recycled Playground Challenge,” courtesy of Colgate, TerraCycle and ShopRite Supermarkets. The school earned a total of 178,303 Playground Credits by recycling waste and through online voting by teachers and parents.

On the surface, the new playground that was unveiled Tuesday morning at the BelovED Community Charter School looks like any other in the city. It definitely receives the same reaction from kids, who looked at the slide and the monkey bars with wide eyes, and wide smiles. The school playground, which is the first for the school, was built using recycled toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and floss containers. The school itself won the playground as part of the Recycled Playground Challenge, a competition that was set up by Colgate, ShopRite, and the recycling company TerraCycle, which is based in Trenton.

In 2001, Terracycle founder (and the man they now call the Zuckerberg of trash) Tom Szaky was just another university undergraduate trying to come up with an idea for the Princeton Business Plan Conest. An Autumn trip to Montreal introduced him to the wonder of worm farming and he was soon singing the praises of the fertilizer that they produce. Years of back breaking work and diversification later and Terracycle is now a global leader in waste minimisation – operating in 21 countries around the world, with 60 million consumers collecting waste for their repurposing operations. This extend far beyond fertilizer, with Terracycle now targeting the waste that has not traditionally been recycled, at both the pre and post-consumer level. What does this include? In the USA, Terracycle has 60 different waste streams, converting everything from used gum to cigarette butts to dirty diapers into (respectively) rubbish bins, assorted plastic products and compost – not bad, for what we once considered trash! In New Zealand, Terracycle is currently limited to two waste streams: Oral Care products (toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, floss containers etc), and Nescafe Dolce Gusto Capsules (from coffee machines) – but more are on their way. Of particular interest to sports clubs is the pending collecting for confectionary wrappers – stay tuned! So how does it work? Their system is simple. Interested individuals sign up online at www.terracycle.co.nz, choose a category of waste that they would like to collect and start collecting it. While Terracycle don’t provide a box for this (they want to encourage reuse of existing ones!), once your group has collected enough to fill a container your leader can request a free shipping label. This is affixed to the box and off it goes! For every piece of waste received, TerraCycle credits the group with a small donation (2 cents per item in NZ) that can be donated to any charity or school of their choice – meaning that your sports club can directly benefit, as well as reducing the waste sent to landfill. As LiteClub co-founder Michael Campbell says, “if we all do a little, together we can achieve a lot.”

If you’ve been recycling through the city of Dalton curbside recycling program or at one of the four convenience centers in Whitfield County you know that our community recycles the basics: plastic bottles and jugs, paper, aluminum cans, bi-metal cans, glass bottles and jars. With a full recycling bin every week you may be wondering if there’s anything else you could be recycling to take your environmentally friendly habit to the next level. Here are some items that you may not be currently be recycling but are available either locally or through a mail in program.