Last Sunday, Grace Church began collecting Capri Sun, Honest Kids and Kool-Aid juice pouches to upcycle through
TerraCycle. What is
upcycling you ask? Typically when we recycle something the resulting products are of a lower grade and value, also referred to as downcycling. For example, each time paper is recycled, the fibers that make up the paper become shorter. That is why you usually see writing paper with a percentage of recycled content and not 100% recycled content. Eventually the fibers become so short they won't stay together as paper so the only thing left is for them to be composted. Upcycling on the other hand is actually making a product with higher value than the recycled material such as juice pouches. TerraCycle takes the juice pouches we collect and turns them into products like back packs and reusable shopping bags which they sell at stores like Home Depot and Walmart.
In addition to doing our part for the environment by recycling, we also receive 2¢ per pouch for the church.
We have a box behind the recycling bins in the kitchen that you can put your empty juice pouches, either Capri Sun, Honest Kids or Kool-Aid. Once we have enough to make it worth while, we will send them to TerraCycle to be upcycled.
So, have your kids bring back home their juice pouches from school lunches and snacks. If you're willing, have them ask their friends to give them their juice pouches as well and we'll recycle and raise even more. Then drop them off in the box when you come to church.
TerraCycle upcycles a number of other things that we could collect, so please let us know which of these we should sign up for and start collecting:
If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact:
Jonathan Hunt at
jmhunt@mit.edu or (781) 874-0493.
Let us all be stewards of this earth our island home.
Thanks,
Jon
Do I need to clean the pouches before putting them in the bag?
We ask that you remove the straws and ensure that the liquid is removed from the pouches as much as possible. If you can, it does help if you cut the pouch at the top above where the straw is inserted, however this step is NOT required. This cleaning process will also help eliminate unwanted pests.
How much do you pay per drink pouch?
We credit your charity $.02 per Honest Kids, Capri Sun and/or Kool-Aid drink pouch.
at Home Depot from now until November 14, 2010.
While residents will be giving out candy to the kids of all ages that come in costume, a group of environmentally minded Medford residents be reversing the custom and distributing CFLs to home owners.
In addition to the energy efficient light bulbs, volunteers will also be distributing information on saving energy and appropriate disposal of the CFLs and other mercury containing devices. The goal is to give out about 200 CFLs in two hours in the region of South Medford.
Please start saving your wrappers and bags to bring to church. You can leave them by the recycling in the kitchen. You can combine all the wrappers/bags/pouches into plastic grocery bags and I'll sort them. TerraCycle will take the wrappers and turn them into heavy duty trash cans that should be available at some point through Home Depot.
The eco-bottles are compatible with Klean Kanteen, a popular brand name stainless steel water bottle, so you can get a sports cap if you prefer that to the wide mouth for drinking. They run about $4 on Amazon.com.
If you need help or ideas on how to collect more juice pouches from your classmates at school, ask Hannah, Ellie or Christor at Godly play or coffee hour.
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