TRANSITIONS a conseillé les équipes de la marque de café Tassimo du groupe Kraft food /Mondelez International dans l’organisation du dispositif de valorisation des capsules usagées que la marque a mise en place avec l’organisme de collecte et de recyclage TerraCycle.

Hayhurst Elementary in Southwest Portland has gone from using seven 30-gallon bags of waste each lunch period to just half a bag. What’s the school’s secret?   Hayhurst PTA sustainability chairwoman Kendall KIC, (who legally changed her name to all caps), says that back in November of 2009 she discovered a program online called TerraCycle and has since kept 9,000 juice pouches out of the trash.   Capri Sun and other juice pouches had been among a slew of items difficult for schools to recycle, so kids ended up just throwing them in the garbage. But TerraCycle provides Hayhurst’s sustainability “brigade” with prepaid labels to ship out hard-to-recycle items, such as drink pouches, candy wrappers, chip bags and flip-flops.   The New Jersey-based company makes money from recycling the products and shares its earnings by granting points for the brigade to earn cash for the school or a favorite charity.   “Over time, it’s slowly building so people realize that we’re doing this,” KIC says. “My goal is at least 5,000 juice pouches collected during this upcoming school year.”   She keeps them packed in a yard-debris bag in her garage, but recently a school custodian allowed her space in the Hayhurst boiler room, where the juice pouches can dry. Some money comes back to the PTA for funding school activities, but that’s not the emphasis for organizers.   “About $200 a school year is not really what it’s about for us; it’s more about the sustainability piece,” KIC says.   Apparently, the secret is getting out, as this will also be the third year of a TerraCycle program at Sojourner School in Milwaukie. “Sojo” is an alternative magnet school and, at about 186 students, the smallest elementary in North Clackamas School District. Known for a high number of volunteer hours parents put in, it turned out to be a perfect early adopter of a TerraCycle program.   Starting with juice pouches in the first year, the Sojo program added toothpaste tubes, flip-flops, glue sticks and tape rings last year. TerraCycle program coordinator and former PTA Vice President Polly Lugosi says the brigades have extended their reach to neighbors not usually involved with the school. They’ve taken to collecting from soccer games.   “I find that people don’t throw them away even when they’re not at school,” Lugosi says.   At a holiday assembly this year, Lugosi says students will get a chance to vote on charities to donate about $100 collected from the program.   TerraCycle spokeswoman Lauren Taylor says a lot of people find out about the programs through the packaging, such as by seeing the labels on Capri Sun juice boxes, and then they go to the website. “It’s very easy for people to sign up based on the waste stream they’re looking to collect,” Taylor says.   Nationally, TerraCycle says its programs have raised $4.5 million for charity, thanks to nearly 31 million people collecting trash.   All schools are eligible, Taylor says. A tax ID number is necessary so the money can go to charity. The revenue from recycling can go to any charity — even the National Rifle Association (we asked).   The growing list of Portland-area schools getting involved includes Menlo Park Elementary School, David Douglas Arthur Academy, Faithful Savior Ministries, Earl Boyles Elementary, Mount Scott Elementary, Oak Grove Elementary, John Wetten Elementary, Chief Joseph Elementary, Sauvie Island Academy, John Jacob Astor Elementary, Markham Elementary, Laurelhurst Elementary, Parklane Elementary, Lynch Meadows Elementary and Creative Science School.

Je suis une consommatrice de t-disc pour ma machien Tassimo ... grande consommatrice, non parce que je ne suis pas une grosse buveuse de café, mais j'apprécie mon chocolat suchard le dimanche matin, les expresso pour mes invités, les capsules trio pour les repas en famille ...

Afin de sensibiliser les enfants au tri sélectif et favoriser une démarche éco-citoyenne, l’Association indépendante des parents d’élèves de Bardines (AIPEB) et la mairie, en partenariat avec les équipes éducatives, viennent de mettre en place une zone de collecte dans le hall de la maternelle La Marelle.

KELLER - Willis Lane Elementary recently earned designation as a Green Ribbon School because its students are practicing earth-friendly behavior, getting regular exercise and enjoying the great outdoors.   As the school community worked at recycling, reducing waste and fitness, students took some of those habits home with them. For Eco-Campus, a focus on conserving resources and recycling, Willis Lane officials promoted a "Waste Free Lunch and Snack Week" that encouraged kids to bring food in reusable containers. They also had an emphasis on recycling, starting up a new program with Terracycle to recycle lunch kits, drink pouches and other items, adding more bins around the school and allowing parents to recycle old computers, batteries, small appliances and other electronics.   Willis Lane Principal Cheryl Hudson said, "It took them from everyone recycling paper to we can recycle a water bottle, Capri Sun pouch, a Lunchables container and a lot more."

Although TerraCycle still has less than $20 million a year in annual revenue, it operates in 21 countries now. That means that my intense domestic travel — Minneapolis to Racine, Wisconsin, to Chicago — has morphed into intense global travel — Newark to Bogotá, Colombia, to Tel Aviv. No matter how you do it, travel is a strain — made worse, I believe, because airlines seem to have a hard time with customer service. Maybe it’s just because there are always so many exhausted travelers complaining. Or maybe it’s something more systemic. Who knows? But I continue to believe there are some easy fixes that airlines could make. Here are my top six. Outlets: How often do you wander an airport looking desperately for an electrical outlet? When I find one, I will even sit on the floor, beside a smelly bathroom, if that’s what it takes. But why is this necessary? Why not put them everywhere? Why don’t the airlines and airports make it something they market: Never search for an outlet! Nonreclining seats: This is almost insulting. The chair has a recline button built into it, but when you push that button and try to recline, it moves half an inch. And then the best part is when you are landing and the airline attendants make a fuss about moving your seat back into an upright position. The cabin P.A.: The cabin public address system, I believe, should be reserved for truly important messages, and they should be made quickly. No banter, no talking slowly, no pressing the button and then not talking. I don’t really care what the wind speed will be where we’re landing in eight hours or even what the weather will be — it will be what it will be. Not only is the chatter annoying, it cuts off whatever entertainment you are trying to enjoy. I’ve had flights where my movie seemed to be interrupted by sales pitches every 10 minutes — in three languages. Checking in: Depending on the airline and the destination, the cutoff time for check-in booths and kiosks to stop giving boarding passes is generally 30 minutes to 60 minutes before departure. Why? Honestly, just give me a chance to run to the gate and make it. I understand that the security and immigration lines are my obstacle – but let me try, especially if I have no bags to check. (Here’s a tip: If you ask nicely, they will often call the gate and have the gate authorize a boarding pass.) Lounge rules: Some airlines let you into the lounge only if you are flying internationally. But since when do Mexico and Canada (my homeland) belong to the United States? Most airlines apply domestic rules to destinations in Canada or Mexico regardless of the length of the flight (Miami to Vancouver, for example, is quite a bit longer than Miami to Bogotá). If you haven’t been to an airport lounge, it’s basically a bunch of nice couches, lots of outlets, free snacks and an open bar. Sometimes there are showers (but rarely). You can get in based on your loyalty-card status or with certain credit cards. But it’s rarely clear. For example, with Star Alliance, if you have a gold status, you can get into the lounge (in certain airports) if you are flying international. And you can bring a guest, but the guest must be flying Star Alliance, as well. These strange policies are especially annoying because you just never know. And, really, what is the incremental cost of allowing one more person into a lounge? Alcohol policy: Having a few drinks can be a nice way to knock yourself out on a long flight and ward off jet lag. But why is it that you can bring a sandwich and a Coke on board from an airport shop but you can’t bring a beer? I don’t think I’m asking for a lot here — although a free snack every now and then would be nice. What would you like to see?

Lots of Items Formerly Known As Trash can be recycled into new, slightly questionable items with TerraCycle.  I’m not sure anyone needs a Capri Sun tree skirt, but they pay cash directly to the school for candy bar wrappers, drink box pouches, and office supplies.

Dans le cadre de notre projet d'école: « éco-citoyen : raisonner responsable », nous avons proposé à l'ensemble de l'école de participer à un concours organisé par Terracycle.fr Ce concours consiste à récolter le plus possible d'instruments d'écriture usagés. Le concours se termine le 26 octobre. Merci à toutes les classes des maternelles aux primaires, de participer à cette opération.

We came across a staggering piece of information recently: nearly half of the containers and packaging that ends up in landfills can be recycled. Half. That’s a lot of every-day items in homes across America that can be re-used. Our Bag The Box friend, Tom Szaky with TerraCycle, recently wrote a great piece for Packaging Digestin which he points out that statistic, as well as some other gems, like how a March 2012 Nielsen study showed that recycling was the most important environmental aspect of a product across both genders and all age groups. Recycling and, our favorite, re-using is so important to people, yet so many items go to waste. Why? Recycling -- or upcycling -- is easier than people may think. Earth911 came out with a list a few years ago that bears repeating. People don’t recycle or re-use because: -       It’s inconvenient, or they don’t have curbside containers to help sort. -       There’s no incentive to do it. -       It’s not economical. Sometimes earth-friendly packaging can be more expensive. While these are valid issues, we here at Bag The Box take issue with the last two. Look at our Malt-O-Meal cereals, for example. We’re priced less than our competitors, and one of the reasons for that is our packaging. And there certainly is an incentive to recycle and reuse; in fact, there are hundreds of them! You can send in used bags to TerraCycle so the team can come up with fun ways to make it into a wallet or gift bag. You can take on DIY projects on your own. You can donate to the Cereal Bag Brigade. But obviously, word needs to get out! If people aren’t aware of the incentives, they can’t take advantage of them. So Tom says in his Packaging Digest article, the frame of mind needs to change. He says the next time you see an empty box or wrapper, don’t just walk on by. Instead, “ask yourself not only where it came from, but also where it can go.” Where have your Malt-O-Meal cereal bags gone? What have you done lately to change your frame of mind?