Example of Upcycled Juice Boxes
According to the EPA, packaging from food makes up 32% of household trash. Have you been to a school lunch lately? The average elementary student wastes 45 to 90 pounds of trash every year just from lunch time packaging! Unfortunately, cardboard or paper with any food stains currently cannot be recycled, nor can any plastic bags that food comes in, or candy or chip bags with mylar lining.
So what’s a person to do? You can send in some of your used, empty food packaging to Terracycle and they’ll make something unique from it plus give you 2¢ or more for each item. Terracycle is great for school or community fundraisers and teaches the importance of reusing and recycling while making money for your group.
Terracycle currently has 45 brigades (they’ve added many new ones just this year) and collects candy and cookie wrappers, juice pouches, yogurt cups, potato chip bags, energy bar wrappers, cell phones, scotch tape, corks, gum, and even Neosporin tubes! Visit their website for the complete list of brigades and details about how you can start collecting items today to help eliminate landfill waste!
Think Outside The Bin
