Green Child Magazine Back-to-School 2012 | Page 55
Have you grown weary of the same old, same
old wrapping paper/candy/cookie fundraisers especially when the products aren’t health
or environmentally friendly? So how do you
combine teaching children about the Earth and
earning money for your schools?
My green fundraising committee’s goal was to
accomplish both. We started with one program (print cartridges) and after seven years,
expanded to twenty different recycling collection programs. Mind you, my school only
thought of my committee as a teaching tool so
they didn’t push for us to become a financial
success. Yet, both can be achieved utilizing the
following programs.
Check out some of these great programs to get
you started:
1. Earn Cash for Waste Programs:
TerraCycle has numerous collection programs where the organization is paid two
cents per item. In our case, we collected
plastic lunch bags, Capri Sun wrappers,
Lays potato chip bags, gum wrappers, energy bar wrappers, markers, glue sticks, and
many other items. The kids in the afterschool environmental club counted all of
the items.
In order for this program to be successful,
you need ample space to store the collections. Over the years, due to rising fuel
costs, TerraCycle requires a minimum
amount of collected product before it can
be shipped. For example, energy bar wrappers shipments require a 500 minimum
collection.
Also, note, their programs fill very fast so
some of the above take-back programs are
not available. Don’t worry. TerraCycle con-
stantly institutes new programs.
2. Electronic Recycling:
Recycling Fundraiser, Funding Factory, and
Buymytronics have fundraising opportunities to buy back electronics which include
cell phones, iPhones, iPads, and other digital electronic devices. Some organizations
even take back broken items. We worked
with both Recycling Fundraiser and Buymytronics.
3. Print Cartridge Fundraising:
Recycling Fundraiser, Funding Factory,
and Earthtone Solutions pay for used print
cartridges. Again, we used Recycling Fundraiser. By the way, Terracycle pays for the
cartridges too.
4. Milk Carton Recycling:
Milkmuny buys certain milk and juice cartons. In turn, the Company makes wallets
from the cartons. For Earth Day, we collected the cartons. In retrospect, I should
have enlisted the help of more parents since
the milk cartons had to be cut up in a certain way. I ended up cutting up 100 plus
cartons myself!
5. Shop Green Fundraising:
Greenraising and Koru Fundraising have
oodles of great green products to choose
from. Each organization has an online
shopping web page. The above companies
offer various fundraising opportunities
such as catalog or website drives where an
organization can earn up to 45% of the sales
commissions.
6. Snack, Lunch & Assorted Bag
Fundraisers:
Everyone is trying to reduce the plastic bag
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