Students at Hayden R. Lawrence Upper Elementary have collected more than 17,600 snack bags to recycle, making them top collectors in a free national recycling program created by The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. and TerraCycle.
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.”
While writing a previous article on green dental care, I found out about a great company called TerraCycle, which offers a program to accept “non-recyclable or hard to recycle waste,” such as toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes. After looking at the website , I decided TerraCycle deserved an article of its own! Started by a young Princeton student, TerraCycle began as a small business that sold worm casting fertilizer in used soda bottles. TerraCycle started expanding its business by producing various products out of post-consumer waste, such as pencil cases out of used CapriSun drink pouches. This process, called upcycling, involves producing new, useful products out of waste materials and useless products that otherwise would go to the landfill. So, upcycling helps reduce landfill waste and reduces resource use. TerraCycle quickly grew into a global project with over 20 countries now participating in their upcycling efforts.
Recycling is great for the planet, saves resources and basically helps clean up our world. Many of us know that we can recycle things like plastic, paper, glass bottles and metals. However, there are many other items that you probably didn't know could be turned in for cash or a tax deduction. Here's a list of a few of them.
Trash
A company called TerraCycle will pay for your trash. This program works best with schools or other non-profit organizations that can collect a lot of trash. The company will donate money to your cause for every piece of trash you send the organization. According to its website, the company will take everything from empty scotch tape rolls to energy bar wrappers. TerraCycle will even pay the shipping. If you have a cause, charity or school program in need of some extra money, this could be a great way to go about raising some funds.
Many people have a very clear idea of what "recyclable" looks like, and many products are helpfully marked with the symbol of three arrows in perpetual triangular circulation. The meaning is clear — once used, recyclable products can be reused almost infinitely. But what of the non-recyclables? Do they, too, have purpose, or are they fated for the landfill, never to be used again?
That's where
TerraCycle comes in. On the Mary Baldwin campus, it is proving to be a force to be reckoned with.
A small, up-and-coming company founded in 2001, TerraCycle makes use of products that are often challenging to recycle. From ink cartridges to digital cameras, Scotch Tape to candy wrappers, TerraCycle's eco-friendly approach takes several of these products to create items like all-purpose cleaners (made from soda bottles), bike pouches (made from energy bar wrappers), and backpacks (made from cookie wrappers). It is a creative approach that is environmentally friendly, efficient, and economical, shrinking the amount of trash sent into landfills in a way that has people paying attention.
The Environmental Awareness committee at
Canyon Creek Elementary is introducing
TerraCycle's Classroom Recycling program from January thru April 2011. This is a great way to help by saving: Elmer Glue Sticks, Papermate and Sharpies writing instruments and Scotch tape dispensers for recycling.
Parents need to send these items with their kids for collection in the classrooms. This is similar to their successful Box Top Contest. The winning classroom will be rewarded with ice cream! Even if you don't have students you can drop items off at the school to be distributed equally throughout the classes or to a designated
In the days leading up to Halloween, American consumers spend nearly $2 billion on candy. By the time the sugar-high wears off, millions of candy wrappers have been needlessly discarded and end up in landfills. That’s why TerraCycle <
http://www.terracycle.net/> has partnered with Mars/Wrigley and Cadbury to create a second life for those used candy wrappers.
This holiday season, conscious consumers are invited to join the Candy Wrapper Brigade by saving the wrapper every time they enjoy a Mars/Wrigley or Cadbury candy product. Collected wrappers are then sent in to the company where they’ll be upcycled into purses, backpacks, coolers, and other innovative products.
Saintly Recyclers mail in their trash. Terracycle.net will recycle (usually postage is free) and donate to charity your candy wrappers, yogurt cups, drink pouches, cookie wrappers, Flavia Freshpacks, Frito-Lay chip bags, energy and granola bar wrappers, Bear Naked wrappers, Kashi packages, cell phones, Huggies and Scott tissue wrappers, Aveno tubes, Scotch tape dispensers, corks, cereal bags, Sharpies and Papermate writing instruments, Neosporin tubes, coffee bags, lunch kits (like Lunchables), Colgate tubes and packaging, Ziploc bags and containers, Inkjet cartridges, and Sprout and Revolutions food containers.
Preserveproducts.com recycles your No. 5 plastics (same company that has the receptacles at Whole Foods) and water filters into toothbrushes and razors.
The items will be recycled by Terra Cycle when goals are reached and the program is aiming at collecting more than 500 items from each category each month.
Following is the list of items which can be dropped off:
Mars or Wrigley brand candy bar wrappers; energy bar wrappers; drink pouches; Nabisco cookie wrappers; Kashi brand wrappers or boxes; toasted chip bags; Bear Naked brand wrappers; wine bottle corks; Aveeno product tubes; Scotch tape dispensers and cores; Frito Lay chip bags; Malt-O-Meal cereal bags or boxes; Elmer's glue; Huggie's brand diaper or pull-up bag packaging; Scott's brand packaging; Neosporin brand packaging; lunchable kits; spread (butter) containers; gum wrappers; cell phones; Colgate brand packaging; yogurt cups; writing instruments; Starbucks coffee bags; plastic bottle lids; and used gift cards
