Upcycle with People

 I Plan on Being Trashy Tomorrow

(Photos with white background are courtesy of Terracycle, the other pictures are by me)

I would have rocked this when Chloe was a baby

I'm upcycling like a madwoman. It's not a promotion or a boost in society, it's a type of recycling where a company, Terracycle to be exact, gets the licensing rights for different iconic brands' packaging, which includes its marketing and symbols.

The trash—we upcycle Frito Lay chip bags and Capri Sun—is made into kicky little pencil holders and three-ring binders among other nifty school supplies. The school receives money and Terracycle reuses them to make money. It's pretty simple. And we get postage-paid stickers. We just need to find the boxes.

I got involved last year after back-to-school night. They raised a couple thousand the previous year by recycling. This motivated me to get involved, which is something I rarely do. I usually report on other people doing things.  I am sort of watching from the outside.

But this recycling thing is where I make up for what I lack in participation at the school. I wish I could be there more to help in any way possible, to spend more time with my daughter and get to know her friends. The trash talking helps.

We recycle bottles, cans, the chip bags and Capri Sun pouches, ink cartridges, laptops, PDAs and cell phones, plus take box tops. It's quite a circus on recycling drop-off day.

Chloe and I are so obsessed, I once made a date carry out two large bags of recycled cans from a wedding reception. We have picked up cans, bottles and chip bags in parking lots everywhere from a baseball game to Disneyland to Amangela's to last week's skate contest. I pick through my parents' trash. We do it everywhere.

I would be completely embarrassed to dig through trash in public if it was not for the school. Which is a shame because I should be that passionate about recycling whether or not my daughter's class gets points. Ms. Hochee's class is kicking our, er, bums. So hopefully tomorrow we will make a comeback. Eye of the Tiger.

I do go to great lengths to recycle. But it's not that time consuming. It just takes a little organization. And it's a way to give back to the school in one swoop without it taking a huge chunk out of my finances.

So tomorrow is our next recycling day. We do it once a month. It's dirty deeds done dirt cheap. It's all accomplished by parent volunteers who Victoria Nagata and I wrangle. My boss is patient about me coming in later on Recycling Day. I am grateful.

If anyone wants to save Frito-Lay bags for us, I would be happy to arrange a pick up. It's another way to recycle but you can't plop it on the curb. It ends up in landfills instead of hanging from someone's shoulder. I  really am that obsessed. I collect it from people at my office. I even recycle the stuff they give me that doesn't have a CRV or licensing rights. Treat me to your trash. It's for the kids.

For more info on Terracycle or how you can start your own upcycling group, visit http://www.terracycle.net/. There are a ton of different products that can be upcycled. We've chosen two to keep it simple for parents and kids. As we get more buy-in, we will add more hopefully.

I wrote a story about the recycling program before I got involved volunteering.

Click below for the full story:
http://bigbeargrizzly.net/articles/2009/11/11/community/valley_spotlight/doc4afa1bd541805141019279.txt