Local organizations available to use recycling program
By William Zilke, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: April 10, 2008
Things have changed since many of us went to school.
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At lunch time, you had the choice of buying milk or waiting for a drink of water from the fountain.
But for many years, juice boxes and pouches have been a staple beverage for most students since the 1980s.
However, what happens to all of those juice pouches?
"There are 4.6 billion juice pouches produced every
year," Michael Waas of TerraCycle, Inc. said. "Because the material
used to makes these is non-recyclable, virtually every single one is
sent to a landfill."
TerraCycle acquired those numbers through the Container Recycling Institute that follow these trends.
To help combat this growing
problem, TerraCycle, Inc. has partnered with Capri Sun and Honest Tea for a recycling program that is truly revolutionary.
Their solution is the "Drink Pouch Brigade."
"By participating in a Brigade, the Van Buren
Public Schools can actively engage students in an up-cycling program
that teaches the benefits of recycling while also earning some extra
funds," Waas said.
This program allows schools, houses of worship and other organizations to reuse these items that previously were not recyclable.
The nationwide Drink Pouch Brigade sends collections bags that will hold 100 pouches and even includes prepaid shipping labels.
Not only does the Drink Pouch Brigade collect all
used drink pouch containers, they pay participants two cents for every
drink pouch they collect.
The pouches do not have to be Capri Sun drink pouches to be collected.
"I've thought about all of those juice pouches
going into the landfills," Van Buren Public Schools Communications
Director Paul Henning said.
Karen Sanders, the Food Service supervisor at
Belleville High School said, "We only sell juice boxes and they're ala
carte and what they get with their meal is a plastic cup."
While the Van Buren Public Schools do not have
excess juice pouches, this nationwide program is free to sign up for
and Belleville area organizations are eligible.
However, more than 800 schools and community groups
did sign up and have collected an astounding 60,000 pouches in a matter
of just a few months.
"This program was designed to allow our nation's
schools, churches and other organizations to help save the environment
while raising money for charity or extra funds for themselves," Waas
said.
Most importantly it teaches kids about the importance and benefits of recycling."
"The best part about all of this is that people can sign up as soon as they read the article," Waas said.
Honest Tea, Capri Sun, and TerraCycle are
challenging America's schools and churches to help rescue and reuse one
million pouches in the next year.
The pouches will be made into school supplies such as
pencil cases, as well as handbags of various sizes
and styles, which will be sold at Target stores this year, according to
TerraCycle.
The Drink Pouch Brigade was derived from TerraCycle's hugely successful nationwide Bottle Brigade recycling program (www.terracycle.net/bb).
The Bottle Brigade fundraiser has grown to 4,000 locations in just over a year
and has rescued and reused over 2 million soda bottles.
Honest Tea, which manufactures organic thirst
quenchers and teas, is a new entry into the drink pouch market,
offering a USDA certified organic, low sugar, fruit flavored thirst
quencher for kids. Honest Tea is highly concerned with reducing their
impact on the environment by finding a way to reuse some of the waste
generated by their Honest Kids Drink
Pouches.
If you are interested in helping to keep our planet
green and make some money for your organization- or are interested in
other TerraCycle programs or their organic gardening products- call
Waas at 1-609-393-4252 ext. 428 or email him at michael@terracycle.net.
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