Nields School in Slaithwaite has raised more than £500 for the school’s charity by collecting and recycling “unrecyclable” items from the community.
The items collected include cheese packaging, toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes, Pringles tubes, writing instruments and much more.
These items are not included in council kerbside recycling collections so have traditionally been destined for landfill or incineration.
Once dropped off at the school, the items are sent to TerraCycle for recycling, the world leader in recycling hard-to-recycle waste.
For every item collected TerraCycle points are earned which are redeemed as monetary donations to Nields PTFA, the school’s charity.
These donations have enabled the school to buy raised beds, soil and seeds for the pupils to grow their own veg to eat in school meals.
The drop-off location is in the car park and is always open to the community, including during the school holidays.
It was set up by Karen Hill after she signed up to a number of TerraCycle’s Free Recycling Programmes.
These include the BIC Writing instruments Free Recycling Programme, the Cathedral City Cheese Packaging Free Recycling Programme and the Colgate & Hello Oral Care Free Recycling Programme.
Local residents are encouraged to continue to drop off their waste at Nields School & Nursery. Ensuring it is recycled through TerraCycle rather than being sent to incineration helps to boost the school charity’s fundraising efforts.
Karen, the administrator of the collection point, said: “Nields School prides itself in teaching children the importance of looking after our planet and the environment, which made TerraCycle’s Free Recycling Programmes a perfect fit.
“Not only do they enable the entire community to recycle items that would otherwise end up in incineration but they also help us raise money to fund projects such as our school garden and ‘Wildlife Wednesday’ lessons.”
The collected items are sent to TerraCycle and are recycled by shredding, cleaning and turning into plastic pellets which can then be used by manufacturers to create new generic plastic products, such as outdoor equipment – reducing the need to extract new resources from the planet.
Karen added: “We encourage everyone in the area to get involved and sort, save and bring the items we can recycle to our drop-off location. It’s a great way to reduce your environmental impact and help provide much-needed funding for the school.”
