A company that started out selling worm droppings is now partially responsible for thousands of schools children learning the value of recycling.
Southgate Elementary School is one of the participants in a program run by environmentally friendly company TerraCycle, and school representatives are touting the program’s success and planning to bring it back next year.
Emily Bradford, a representative from TerraCycle, said the mission of the company is to provide a holistic approach to environmentalism, while turning a profit on trash.
TerraCycle’s entire mission is to eliminate waste, she said.
The company makes products out of otherwise discarded items and buys waste, primarily from schools, at 2 cents a pop, in order to give the schools extra incentive to participate.
Some products, like Capri Sun and Lays, have an agreement with TerraCycle to have distinguishable branding on the recycled products.
Bradford said everybody wins when waste is eliminated and schools teach the benefits of recycling while companies promote themselves by participating.
Schools can ship the waste in pre-paid boxes, she said.
With nearly 60,000 schools participating, Bradford said the company has come a long way from its college-dorm-room start almost 10 years ago.
Tom Szacky, a Prinecton University freshman, conceived of the idea after a project he worked on involved reusing worm excrement to make fertilizer.
At first the `fertilizer` was packaged in plastic bottles he dug up from trash bins, but he was asked to stop rummaging through garbage by university officials.
Keeping with the spirit of eliminating waste, Szacky turned to children and schools to provide the packaging.
`We started a ‘bottle-buddy brigade,’` Bradford said.
In 2007 the company began collecting juice containers and other items to make its products. It also collects yogurt cups and candy wrappers, as well as drink containers, she said.
`We’re still very, very new,` she said. `We’re still young and we’re still growing.`
For the remainder of April, in honor of Earth Day, Thursday, April 22, products made by TerraCycle will appear in Wal-mart alongside products made by participating companies.
For example, tote bags made by Frito lays will be displayed with the chips, and backpacks made out of Capri Sun containers will be sold along the original drinks.
`I love the fact that you’ve set up an extremely convenient system, choice of product and prepaid shipping, that allows us to implement extra recycling as easy as can be. For this year, our go green committee is organizing the collection and the shipping. The money earned will go fund the go green committee, helping in teaching the kids how to pay attention to their actions toward the environment and nature, bringing inspiration and helping them get closer to nature,` said Marine de Longeaux chairwoman of the go-green committee.
Susan Sheppeck, chairwoman of the Parent Teacher Association’s communications committee at Southgate Elementary School, said the PTA is working on a number of initiatives designed to increase environmentally friendly practices.
`The Go Green committee works with the school to try to reduce our output,` she said.
Sheppeck said the program was successful in large part to the hard work of de Longeaux, as well as the students who participated.
Bins have been set up in the lunchroom so students know where to put the wrappers.
`The kids really got on board,` Sheppeck said.
The school even worked a competition into the mix, asking kids in each grade to see how much they can reduce their waste over time and beat other grades.
Students are encouraged to reuse bottles, bring in plastic containers instead of plastic or paper bags and use thermoses instead of disposable water bottles as well.
`Recycling is a good habit for everyone to get into,` Sheppeck said.
Other programs the PTA sponsors are recycling electronics and a paperless initiative, where e-mail is used whenever possible.
If a paper reminders need to go out, it only goes to one student if there are multiple in the family.
The PTA also hosted a magic show in January performed by Tim Wenk in order to show garbage `doesn’t just evaporate` magically.
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