Green Team

Help us Terracycle!

By Kristi von der Linden

What is Terracyling, you ask?  Well, since Spring 2010, Longfellow Lions have earned over $3,800 Terracycling.  Basically, it’s a means of recycling items that would usually end up in the trash.  At Longfellow, our students Terracycle juice pouches, foil lined snack bags and energy bar wrappers at lunch.  The items are shipped to a company called TerraCycle for free and up-cycled into new products.

Imagine if we brought these items in from home too!  If only half the students brought in just five items weekly, Longfellow could earn an additional $1,600 in one school year!  Not to mention the fact that, at home, these items are not recyclable through city recycling.  They must go in the garbage.  It’s a win-win to bring um in!!

So what items can you bring in from home?

• Juice pouches (emptied and no straws please)
• Foiled lined snack bags (any size – chips, pretzels, etc)
• Foil lined energy and granola bar wrappers
• Used writing instruments (pens, pen caps, mechanical pencils, markers, marker caps, highlighters, highlighter caps, permanent markers, permanent markers caps)
• Glue sticks, glue bottles, and glue tops

If you bring Terracycling from home, place items in the labeled purple recycling bins located near the cafeteria or in the bike cage.  You can also include them in your Friday Recycling.  Please remember to empty all contents from items before they are brought to school and thank you for helping us keep these items out of the waste stream!

The money raised through Terracycling and Friday Recycling is used to purchase prizes for Walk to School Wednesday and Friday Recycling raffles, recycling supplies (bags, gloves, shipping tape, etc.) and also helped to fund the Learning Garden and other plantings around campus. 

Click here   for the summary.

The Green Team is committed to reducing waste while teaching students about the positive effects of recycling. For more information, send an email to longfellowgreenteam@gmail.com.