Submitted by Verne Neff and Cathy O’Connell
Last month, the Annex began their last step of having a zero waste area when Jeffery Marker volunteered to coordinate Terracycle recycling through existing campus Terracycle efforts.
What is Terracycle?
Terracycle is a company with a goal of eliminating waste. It collects hard to recycle items from people, such as granola bar and candy wrappers, and recycles those items into useful products. Many areas around the University Park campus participate in Terracycle “Brigades” that collect specific items for recycling. You can learn more about the company at www.terracycle.com.
How does Terracycle work?
Some Penn State Green Teams have signed up to collect certain materials, such as chip bags, yogurt containers, etc. You can either contact Terracycle and apply for your own brigade, or you can collect items for the Green Teams that have already been awarded brigades. A list of the participating Green Teams and their contact information can be found at http://sustainability.psu.edu/terracycle. Terracycle pays for the shipping and also makes a donation for each brigade collection submitted, funding a variety of needs such as Educational Equity scholarships, Thon, United Way and international clean water projects.