Changes to TerraCycle Collections at Grace

Our TerraCycle collections have been going very well.  We have earned over $275 for the church and recycled over 13,000 items that would have otherwise been trash.  Please continue to bring your cleaned items to church for TerraCycling with the following adjustments:

Any brand healthy
food snack pouch.

• No more coffee bags
• New Collections
• GoGo Squeeze Containers
• Wine Pouches
• Pairs of Shoes

Unfortunately, Starbuck stopped sponsoring the Coffee Bag Brigade so we are no longer able to recycle coffee bags.  Please dispose of those in the trash.

We are excited to be recycling pairs of shoes, wine pouches and Go-Go Squeeze containers.  Here are the details for each.

Go-Go Squeeze

We accept GoGo squeeZ or other healthy food snack pouches. Please try to rinse them out as much as practical before bringing them in to church.

Wine Pouches

We accept all individual wine pouches, including Clif Family Winery Climber wine pouches.  This includes those that come inside boxes of wine too.

Pairs of Shoes

Recycle pairs of shoes

• Paired Shoes Brigade accepted waste: pairs of women’s, men’s, and children’s shoes, which may include athletic sneakers, cleats, flats, high heels, dress shoes, boots, and fashion or casual sneakers.
• Please Note: You must send in PAIRS of shoes. TerraCycle is unable to accept single shoes. Also, we will not accept any shoe that has even a single hole that you can put a pen through.
• The Paired Shoes Brigade does NOT accept: ski boots, roller skates, roller blades, ice skates, completely broken or ruined footwear, single shoes, rubber flip flops, or slippers

If you have questions or would like to help out, please talk to Alicia or Jonathan Hunt. 

Tread Lightly for Lent - Lenten Green Calendar of Activities

On Sunday, copies of the "Tread Lightly for Lent" calendar of environmentally conscience activities for each day in Lent were made available in the Parish Hall.  This wonderful calendar was put together by the Presbyterian Church (USA) Environmental Ministries and is the best "green" Lenten calendar we found so the Greening Grace Team decided we should reflect on it at Grace Church.

You can pick up a copy in the Parish Hall or download it from the web:

http://www.pcusa.org/media/uploads/environment/pdf/lentcalendarnew.pdf

The activities include a good mix of reflection, action and ideas. 

My favorite action is to

Collect your personal trash and recyclables throughout the day. At the end of the day, survey your waste and think of ways to reduce. On average, Americans create 4.6 pounds of waste a day.
Saturday, March 12th from Tread Lightly for Lent

Please take a look and consider these actions during Lent.  The Episcopal Church has similar resources for many of the programs linked to within the Presbyterian Church.  Please ask us if you need help finding local contact information or have a question about .

Genesis 2:15 (New International Version, ©2011)

 ¹⁵ The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

More TerraCycling - Ceral Bar Wrappers

Boxes of stuff packed up
to send to TerraCycle

Three more boxes of stuff (Chip Bags, Juice Pouches and Coffee Bags) has been shipped to TerraCycle for recycling.  So far Grace Church has collected and recycled over 31 lbs of trash.

Washing it all

Going forward, please separate your Juice Pouches from other TerraCycle items as the juice pouches can make other things sticky.

Given how many cereal bars were turned in with candy wrappers, I have signed us up to collect "Energy Bar" wrappers. "Any foil lined energy and granola bar wrapper" can be collected.

Box of Candy Wrappers

Box of Chip Bags

Christmas Light Trade-in at Home Depot

Just in time for Thanksgiving, Home Depot is offering a 10 day program to trade in those old incandescent energy hog Christmas lights for $3 off new high efficiency LED Christmas lights.  The offer is good through November 14, 2010 so be sure to act on it now. Home Depot will even be recycling the old lights.

Read more at Jon & Alicia's blog:


Green Lifestyle Consulting:  Holiday Light Trade-in and Recycling Program at Home Depot
Do you have strings of old incandescent holiday lights around your house?  Do they even work?  Even if they don't you can trade them in for a discount on energy efficient LED holiday lights at Home Depot from now until November 14, 2010.

Now Collecting Ink Jet Printer Cartridges for TerraCycle

In addition to the candy wrappers, coffee bags, juice pouches, etc., Grace Church is now also collecting ink jet printer cartridges for recycling through TerraCycle.  We'll earn a quarter ($0.25) for each cartridge we recycle, so bring in those used up ink jet cartridges and help Grace Church recycle.

We'll have a small box next to the other TerraCycle stuff in the kitchen behind the recycling so as not to mix the sometimes sticky juice pouches or chip bags with the ink jet printer cartridges.

Video Tour of the TerraCycle Factory

Christor asked Alicia:

How do they turn the juice pouches into money?

She explained that they recycled the pouches into products that they sold at stores and that is how they get the money gets donated for each juice pouch.  I happened to come across this new video tour of the TerraCycle factory today and can't wait to show it to Christor and all the others who have been helping collect juice pouches for Grace Church.

Our first box of juice pouches is going to be shipped to TerraCycle later this week. The kids have been doing a great job!

Juice Pouch Recycling Update - 225 and Counting

Thanks to the exceptional efforts of Hannah, Ellie and Christor, who have collected over 225 juice pouches in the first two weeks.  I hope they'll share their secrets to collecting so many juice pouches because I know they are not drinking that many themselves.  So far we have diverted over 2.5 pounds from the landfills and we are just getting started.  At the end of the month, I'll package up the pouches we have collected and mail them to TerraCycle.

If you have or know of kids (or anyone for that matter) that drinks Capri Sun, Kool-Aid or Honest Kids juice pouches, please collect them.  Try to drain as much of the liquid out and bring them to Grace Church.  There is a small box behind the recycling in the kitchen.  Please put the pouches in the zip top bag.

Thanks,
Jon

Grace Joins TerraCycle to Recycle Juice Pouches

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:

• Stonyfield Yogurt Containers
• Potato Chip Wrappers
• Candy Wrappers
• and many more (there are 5 pages of them)

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

Details from TerraCycle's FAQ:

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.

Grace Recycles!

This year Medford has started collecting paper recycling from business districts, including from Grace Church. You can find a large (4') green container for paper recycling in the coatroom, please put paper there, and not in the trash barrels.

However, they have not yet started collecting other recyclables (plastic, aluminum, glass). It is important to the members of Grace that we recycle as much as possible. Therefore we have put a large bin for co-mingle recyclables in the kitchen. Because Medford does not have an option to collect these from Grace, we are asking members to take the recyclables produced at church home with them and put them in their own recycle bins. Recyclables can also be taken directly to the Drop-Off Center at City Yard, 21 James St in Medford.

For more information on Medford recycling, please see the Medford Recycling web pages.

If you're willing to take home recyclables produced at Grace Church, and put them in your own curbside recycling, or have questions please contact Alicia Hunt, iggy@mit.edu or 781-874-0493.