This is a guest post by Nicholas Efran, nine-year-old son of ‘Becca and Daniel. He wrote this article for the June 2014 issue of the Colfax Communicator, his school‘s newsletter. (Mr. Sikorski is the principal.) We hope it inspires other kids to start recycling things that are getting thrown away in their schools!

Three third-graders started a recycling program for used-up markers, pens, and highlighters at Colfax. Nicholas Efran, Sadie Rothaus, and Emma Reints got enthusiastic support from Mr. Sikorski in setting up bins around the school, next to the staircase entrances. Anyone may bring their used-up pens, markers, and highlighters from home, as well as those used in school.

Nicholas learned about the opportunity to recycle these items from his family friend Suella Pipal, who is a member of the Terracycle Writing Instruments Brigade. When she has collected at least 7 pounds of old pens and markers, she sends them to Terracycle, and the plastic cases are recycled into new products.

Emma, Sadie, and Nicholas hope that everyone will recycle their pens and markers to reduce the millions of plastic items that are shipped to and now sit in the landfills forever. We encourage everyone to PLEASE put your “dead” writing instruments into the bins!

We also encourage you to learn more about the recycling brigades at terracycle.com. Maybe you can join a brigade to collect another hard-to-recycle item!

[Copyright 2014 Nicholas Efran. Please contact nicholas[at]efran[dot]org for more information or for permission to reprint this article.]

My kid’s (and my friend Suella’s) recycling program works for me! Visit Waste Not Want Not Wednesday for more ways to conserve resources.

P.S. Don’t miss my article about recycling coffee bags!

Read about another elementary school kid who started a school recycling program, for juice pouches.