The Kids’ School Collects Juice Pouches for TerraCycle

As I mentioned in my waste free school lunches post, the kids started back to school this past week. I spent a few hours yesterday going through the piles of paperwork thinking that it would have been easier on everyone had they created a single PDF document per teacher with all of the necessary paperwork. One thing that I read, which made me grin, was that the school collects juice pouches for TerraCycle as part of the TerraCycle Drink Pouch Brigade.

If you’ve never heard of Terracycle, let me give you a quick rundown – the company upcycles products. They take juice pouches and create handbags out of them. This keeps the pouches out of the landfill, serves as a fundraiser for the school, and creates a new product out of what would otherwise be trash. The company also has the Chip Bag Brigade – used Frito Lay chip bags are turned into totes and office supplies.

Although the kids don’t get juice pouches in their lunches (remember, our goal this year is waste free school lunches), it is great to see the school participating in this program. My son was excited to hear about this because he’s been a fan of TerraCycle since he saw a piece about the company during a segment of Planet Green.

On a related note, TerraCycle has a new product line out for back-to-school, upcycled school bags. The company has paired up with Yak-Pak to offer bags that are made out of old billboards.

The product line is hip, stylish and because each is made from a different cut of a billboard, every single bag is a one–of–a–kind piece of art. They are manufactured at a hydroelectric powered facility in El Salvador, which is wholly owned by Yak Pak who pays fair wages and assures proper working conditions. The product line includes a variety of functional shapes including messenger bags, backpacks, laptop sleeves and totes and are very affordable, with most retailing for less than $35.

Photo courtesy of TerraCycle