Waste Reduction Strategies
There’s no time like the present to start teaching your kids about recycling (or have them teach you). Now that school has started, chances are most parents have only just started thinking about what they need to do to get their kids ready for the up-coming year. That’s where TerraCycle Canada, the leading upcycler and recycler of hard-to-recycle waste, comes in. The company works with children in schools all across Canada who help divert waste from landfill and fundraise at the same time, earning about two cents for every piece of waste they send in. To date, more than 2 million Canadians have diverted more than 22 million units of waste from landfill and donated more than $170,000 to charities across the country.
Here are four easy waste-reduction strategies:
① What’s for lunch?
Just in time for the start of the school year, TerraCycle Canada and Schneiders® Lunchmate® team up to keep lunch kits out of the garbage and landfill. The Schneiders® Lunchmate® Brigade accepts plastic trays, the lunch kit plastic film and all interior plastic packaging and wrappers. For every lunch kit TerraCycle receives, participants signed up for this brigade will earn $0.02 that they can donate to their school or a non-profit or charity of choice. Plus, the lunch trays will be recycled into products like plastic benches or garbage bins.
If your kids enjoy healthy fruit snack pouches, or hot cereal, we also have the GoGo squeeZ Brigade® | TerraCycle and Hot Cereal Brigade® | TerraCycle, which are similar to the Schneiders® Lunchmate® Brigade. Talk to your child’s school about setting up a TerraCycle program to collect any of these types of waste, if one isn’t already in place. TerraCycle offers a fun way to get students involved in recycling, to help them apply the skills they’re learning, own the program, and earn fundraising dollars that can go toward improvements at or equipment for their school. Not only is this program beneficial for students, teachers benefit as well. Canada’s leading coffee manufacturer-NABOB partnered with TerraCycle to continue a second year of its ambitious recycling program by providing the nation’s only solution to coffee bag waste under the Coffee Bag Brigade® | TerraCycle .Visit www.terracycle.ca to sign up and learn more.
② Buying new school supplies?
Before you do, check what you have on hand. Do you have any used pens, markers or other writing instruments? Instead of throwing them in the garbage which will end up in landfill, drop them off at your local Staples as part of the Staples Brigade.
③ So, what is upcycling?
It means that every part of a product is reused and you can see some of its original form. In addition to recycling, TerraCycle is also a leader in creating innovative upcycled products, which underscore the company’s commitment to a cradle-to-cradle process. Below are few examples of Kool-Aid upcycled products. Also, attached is a DIY link for the Kool-Aid drink pouch turned into a “green wallet”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXsBLOX_qh0
About TerraCycle:
TerraCycle, Inc. is an international upcycling company that takes difficult-to-recycle packaging and turns it into affordable, innovative products. Founded in 2001, TerraCycle is the world leader in the collection and reuse of non-recyclable post-consumer waste. It repurposes the waste into new materials and products that are available for purchase online. The waste is collected through TerraCycle’s Brigade® programs, which pay individuals and groups for every piece of waste they collect and return. To learn more, visit www.terracycle.ca.
