WILLINGBORO — Halie Henry joined about seven of her classmates in taking their first trip down the slide of their brand new playground last Wednesday morning. "It's actually really fun," she said with a smile. "It's better than the older one." It was the first time the students of Hawthorne Park Elementary School had the opportunity to try out the new playground they won in the 2016 TerraCycle Recyced Playground Challenge. The idea to participate in a recycling challenge came in late 2011, thanks to grandparent volunteer Lu-Ann Doyle.  

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Students at a Burlington County, New Jersey elementary school are the winners of a brand new playground thanks to their recycling efforts. The playground itself is made from recycled materials. The ribbon was cut Wednesday for the new playground at Hawthorne Park Elementary School in Willingboro. Old tooth brushes, plastic floss containers and toothpaste tubes are among the items re-purposed to make the playground.  

Colgate, ShopRite, and TerraCycle teamed up to donate the equipment to the Fourteenth Avenue School. Needless to say, the impact on the community is already huge.  

Students at Hawthorne Park Elementary School in Willingboro, have a new playground equipment to use, thanks in part to their recycling efforts at lunch, and winning the 2016 Recycled Playground Challenge, awarded by Colgate, TerraCycle and ShopRite, on Wednesday, June 14, 2017.

WEST MILFORD — Aphsawa Elementary School is competing to win a playground made from recycled oral care waste through the fourth annual Recycled Playground Challenge, courtesy of Colgate-Palmolive, ShopRite and recycling pioneer TerraCycle. Aphsawa will earn one ‘Playground Credit’ for each unit - or two pounds of used, post-consumer oral care products and packaging of oral care waste, such as empty toothpaste tubes and floss containers - sent to TerraCycle for recycling. An additional credit is earned for every online vote cast for the school at www.terracycle.com/colgateshopriteplayground2017 before June 30. 

Hillcrest Elementary School in the Somerset section of Franklin is competing to win a playground made from recycled oral care waste through the fourth annual Recycled Playground Challenge, courtesy of Colgate-Palmolive, ShopRite and recycling pioneer TerraCycle.Hillcrest Elementary School will earn one Playground Credit ...

Who knew old toothpaste tubes and floss containers could bring joy to students? The innovative recycling company TerraCycle did. This year, in conjunction with Colgate and ShopRite, TerraCycle is hosting its fourth annual Recycled Playground Challenge, during which hundreds of schools compete to win a new playground. Right now, St. Katharine Drexel Catholic School in Southampton is in the lead. The school’s only playground was recently closed due to safety reasons and much-needed repairs, so this opportunity to get a new space couldn’t have come at a better time.  

OAK RIDGE — Paradise Knoll Green Team is competing to win a playground made from recycled oral care waste through the fourth annual Recycled Playground Challenge, courtesy of Colgate-Palmolive (“Colgate”), the global oral care leader; ShopRite, which has more than 260 stores in the Northeast; and recycling pioneer TerraCycle. Paradise Knoll Green Team will earn one (1) ‘Playground Credit’ for each unit ("unit" defined as 0.02 lbs of used, post-consumer oral care products and packaging) of oral care waste, such as empty toothpaste tubes and floss containers, sent to TerraCycle for recycling. An additional credit is earned for every online vote cast for the school at www.terracycle.com/colgateshopriteplayground2017 before June 30. The grand prize playground will be made from recycled oral care waste collected through the Colgate Oral Care Recycling Program, a free, national program operated by Colgate and TerraCycle.

One person’s trash is another person’s treasure. That’s the sort of mentality that produced an awesome playground at a Newark school.   The new jungle gym and playground at the Fourteenth Avenue School in Newark is made from recycled toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes, although you’d never know by looking at it. Visually indistinguishable from a “new” product, the innovative effort is a sign that the community is thinking of ways to breathe life into hard-to-recycle waste. A collaborative effort between ShopRite, Colgate and recycling company TerraCycle, the playground will give local kids a safe – and inspirational – place to play for years to come, the project’s organizers stated.

A new playground will soon come to Fourteenth Avenue School in Newark, and it will be made entirely of recycled products, some of which were sourced from the students’ own recycling efforts.   In an announcement event earlier this week, Neil Greenstein, owner and operator of ShopRite of Newark, joined representatives from Colgate and Trenton-based recycling and waste management company Terracycle, Fourteenth Avenue School teachers and the school’s principal, Alyson Barillari, to celebrate both the program and the new playground it will yield.   Neil Greenstein, owner and operator of the ShopRite of Newark, talks about the playground ShopRite and Colgate will donate to the Fourteenth Avenue School in Newark. Image courtesy BML Public Relations Neil Greenstein, owner and operator of the ShopRite of Newark, talks about the playground ShopRite and Colgate will donate to the Fourteenth Avenue School in Newark. Image courtesy BML Public Relations Shoprite and Colgate are joining forces to donate the playground. Via Colgate’s Oral Care Recycling Program, a collaboration between Colgate and Terracycle, students are being encouraged to learn sustainable habits by recycling old toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and floss containers. The playground, expected to be unveiled in April, will not only be a facilities upgrade for the students to enjoy, but will also demonstrate how recycling can manifest in large-scale products they can actually use. Terracycle, a private company founded in 2001, works with brands to create recycling and education programs and curricula around the country, and has executed the playground program with Colgate for other schools through its Recycled Playground Challenge.