With hundreds of students eating lunch every day, the teachers at Meneley Elementary School used to see a lot of used drink pouches and chip bags get thrown away.
Now they earn two cents for every one of those pouches or bags they collect and return to a company called TerraCycle, who uses the waste to make affordable, eco-friendly products.
"I signed up for the Capri Sun brigade, because I know that the containers do not decompose well. When hearing about how TerraCycle takes them and reuses them into other products, I was all for it," said speech therapist Sheri Grove, the coordinator for the school's collection program. "I've been sending the drink pouches in since the start of the school year, and I am happy knowing that I am reducing the amount of trash in our already overflowing landfills that we have in this country."
Meneley is part of a free nationwide program called the "Brigades" that pays schools and nonprofits to collect non-recyclable waste that would otherwise go to the landfill. Now, the programs are coming full circle through a partnership with local Walmart stores.
TerraCycle uses waste material to make a wide range of products like seed starter kits made from yogurt cups and pencil cases made from drink pouches, which will be sold at Walmart for the first time in honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. For the month of April, TerraCycle's products will be sold next to original items, so backpacks made from Capri Sun drink pouches will be sold next to boxes of the juice. Nationwide, more than 50,000 schools and community groups have signed up to help collect more than 25 million used pieces of packaging. Through the TerraCycle Brigades, schools and nonprofits will earn close to $1 million this year.
For more information, visit www.terracycle.net.