Education campaign makes recycling sweets wrappers easy

The “Trick or Trash” campaign offers teachers a free lesson plan and a recycling kit.

Spotted: Atlanta-based recycling company Rubicon Global is partnering with TerraCycle on a US campaign that encourages children to recycle their sweets wrappers. According to industry data, more than 172 million Americans will celebrate Halloween this year, purchasing almost 600 million pounds of candy. 

To prevent this, Rubicon is running its first-ever “Trick or Trash” campaign, which targets elementary and middle school teachers across the U.S. It offers teachers a free lesson plan on recycling and the circular economy, along with a TerraCycle Zero Waste Box for students to use to discard their wrappers. When the box is full, teachers attach a prepaid shipping label and send it and the wrappers off to be recycled, free of charge.

The campaign will run through the end of October and hopes to both educate young people about recycling and to keep candy wrappers out of landfills and off sidewalks. Teachers can sign up online and have all the materials shipped to their school. They can also download the lesson plan online.

Here at Springwise, we’ve been highlighting several new innovations in recycling and conservation. Some recent concepts include a compostable shrink wrap and a range of tableware made from 100 per cent recycled materials.