Recycling Contest

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To kick off our recycling program, we held a recycling contest to encourage students and their families create healthy recycling habits at home. During the month of our contest, we collected close to 3,000 recyclables, which earned money for our school. The top 3 winning classes won a recycling party (in photos above), which included a recycled craft, a gummy worms in "dirt" snack served with compostable cups and spoons, and a demonstration on how worms eat our garbage.

Our recycling contest also helped families learn about all of our recycling opportunities. In addition to typical recyclables like paper, plastic, aluminum, glass, etc., we now offer 17 additional recycling programs, all of which are listed below. Many of the programs are through the company, Terracycle, but we have branched out to other companies to recycle items such as markers, plastic gift/credit cards, and tennis shoes. Since our kick-off in September, we have shipped 27 boxes of recycling with over 22,000 items. During the year, we have earned over $850 through the recycling programs offered by Terracycle.

ALUMINUM CAN PULL TABS: Any color (to be donated to the Ronald McDonald House)                   

BATTERIES: Any size or brand

BRITA: Pitchers, bottles, filters, facet filtration systems, filter packaging, dispensers

CEREAL BAGS: Plastic cereal bags and plastic cereal bag liners

CHEESE PACKAGING:Large flexible cheese packaging, such as shredded cheese packaging, string cheese packaging, individual slices outer packaging, solid cheese block packaging, Kraft Fresh Takes packaging, deli-style sliced cheese packaging and other large cheese packaging.Individual cheese packaging such as individual slices packaging, individual string cheese packaging, and other individual cheese packaging. Foil cheese packaging.

2. CRAYOLA MARKERS: Markers and caps   

DAIRY TUBS: Yogurt, sour cream, cream cheese, butter/margarine, whipped topping, pudding, and plastic ice cream tubs and lids - foil tops and plastic seals also accepted               

DIAPER PACKAGING: Plastic diaper packaging, Wipes outer plastic packaging (individual included)

DRINK POUCHES: Aluminum and plastic drink pouches (no need to remove the straws), drink pouches with spouts 

ELMERS GLUE: Elmer's glue sticks and caps, Elmer's glue bottles and caps 

ENERGY BAR WRAPPERS:

1. Foil-lined energy bar wrappers, foil-lined granola bar wrappers, foil-lined meal replacement bar wrappers, foil-lined protein bar wrappers, foil-lined diet bar wrappers
2. Clif Bar wrappers from Clif SHOT, Clif Twisted Fruit, Clif Roks, Clif Bloks, and Clif Gels
3. All LÄRABAR foil-lined bar wrappers
4. All Cascadian Farm foil-lined bar wrappers
5. GO GO SQUEEZE: Healthy snack plastic pouches and caps 
6. LUNCH KITS: Lunch kit plastic trays, lunch kit plastic lids, lunch kit plastic film and outer wrapping, lunch kit content packaging

ORAL CARE: Toothpaste tubes and caps, toothbrushes, toothbrush and toothpaste tube outer packaging, floss containers
PERSONAL CARE AND BEAUTY: 

1. Hair care packaging such as shampoo bottles and caps, conditioner bottles and caps, hair gel tubes and caps, hair spray bottles and triggers, and hair paste plastic jars and caps
2. Skin care packaging such as lip balm tubes, face soap dispensers and tubes, face lotion bottles, tubes and plastic jars, body wash containers, soap tubes and dispensers, body lotion dispensers and bottles, shaving foam tubes (no cans), and hand lotion bottles and tubes
3. Cosmetics packaging such as lipstick cases, lip gloss tubes, mascara tubes, eye shadow cases, bronzer cases, foundation packaging and bottles, powder cases, eyeliner cases, eyeliner pencils, eye shadow tubes, concealer tubes, concealer sticks, and lip liner pencils
   PLASTIC GIFT CARDS/CREDIT CARDS: Can be cut before recycling 

SCOTCH TAPE: Plastic tape dispensers and plastic tape cores

TENNIS SHOES: Any brand