How Can I Recycle…

Giveaway alert! See bottom of post to enter to win a Go Green Trio from Litter Free Lunch. Giveaway ended. ECO-ngratulations mphin278.

If I was a series type of blogger I would start a new series on ‘How can I recycle…?’  But as you all know my regular columns don’t EVER happen regularly!  LOL! 

The question today is “How can I recycle sandwich bags and old plastic storage containers?”

Kids across America have 2 choices at school these days.  1) Eat the cafeteria food (which my son actually enjoys), or 2) pack their lunch.  For kids (or parents) who opt to pack their lunches they can create about 67lbs of garbage each school yearfrom their lunchboxes alone!  Think about all those pre-packaged lunch kits, baggies, juice pouches, napkins, and plastic cutlery that they trash every day!  While some of these items might be recycleable most schools (at least where we are in FL) don’t have established recycling programs in the cafeterias. 

How many fundraisers does your kids school have?  Some days it may feel like millions…and a lot of them are junk you don’t need!  In our house we are trying to be more eco-friendly and trying to eat healthy so we don’t need wrapping paper and cookie dough.  Unfortunately the schools depend on this money to help with the programs that they offer to our kids.  WHAT IF…instead of selling you more junk you don’t need they actually made money off the junk they throw away every day?

Enters TerraCycle…yes, another raving post about my friends at TerraCycle!  What have they come up with now?

Ziploc Home Storage Brigade!

This brigade (or fundraiser/collection event) is only open to schools.  For every baggie or storage container that your school sends to TerraCycle – TerraCycle will pay you $0.02(for every 0.1lb of containers).  Even better is that they will take any brand of baggie and any brand of storage container AND they don’t even have to be clean!  No worrying about who’s going to clean the leftover peanut butter out of the bottom of the baggies…just package them up and ship them to TerraCycle.  TerraCycle will even pay the postage! 

Recap – 67lbs of garbage each year from one kids lunchbox = $1.34.  I know that doesn’t sound like a lot but now multiply that by the number of kids who pack their lunch at your school.  Let’s say that 200 kids pack their lunches.  200 X 1.34 = $268!  That’s free money from your trash!  I wish someone would hand me a check for $268 on trash day!  Think larger…tell the kids to collect their containers and baggies from home….tell them they can bring them to school and RECYCLE them…and it’s a fundraiser!  We already keep box tops – why not keep trash!  TRASH = MONEY FOR YOUR SCHOOL!

Now…let’s see how effective my proposal is to the rest of the PTA Board when I present this to them at the next meeting.  Oh yeah – did I tell you?   Next school year I am CO-PRESIDENT of the PTA!  Watch out school…you are about to be GREEN!  With the help of TerraCycle they are about to find new avenues for fundraising where we don’t have to sell anything.

WANT MORE SOLUTIONS?  Did you know that companies are now selling reusable cloth baggies and napkins for kids lunches? 

I know my son probably has the greenest lunch box in the cafeteria but he rarely has any disposable items.  We now use the Go Green Trio from Litter Free Lunch.  The Go Green Trio includes a reusable snack bag, a reusable sandwich bag, and a cloth napkin.  They are all made with 100% cotton twill and are machine washable.  Each bag comes with a Velcro closure so your kids lunch will stay inside the bag.  We already love their napkins and I’m happy to see Litter Free Lunch now making coordinating bags.  They are easy to throw in my purse or diaper bag when we go out so Lil’ B always has an emergency snack attack! 

WIN A GO GREEN TRIO!  Yes you can win your very own Go Green Trio from Litter Free Lunch.  Visit their website and tell me what your favorite product and color is.  Leave your comment below to be entered.
EXTRA ENTRIES:
1.  Become Twitter Followers of @LitterFreeLunch, @TerraCycle, and myself @TheEcoChic (1 pt for following everyone – leave your comment below with @Username)
2.  Visit our Facebook Fan pages and LIKE us all…if you do indeed like us!  Litter Free Lunch, TerraCycle, and The Eco Chic (1 pt for Liking everyone – leave your comment below)
3.  Visit my newest blog – Eco Chic Partiesand sign up for my Newsletter.  Eco Chic Parties is home to great eco-friendly Twitter Parties on Thursday nights at 9pm ET.  (1 pt for subscribing – must confirm subscription.  Leave a comment)
4.  Tweet about this giveaway and post; be sure to include @TheEcoChic and a link back here!  (1 pt for tweeting per day)

Contest open to residents of the US over the age of 18.  Contest period closes at midnight ET on May 26th, 2010.  GOOD LUCK!

CONTEST CLOSED! ECO-ngratulations Mphin278!

Disclosure: I was provided a Go Green Trio from Litter Free Lunch to review for this post.  That’s all!