Kickstart: Rewarding students for recycling

If you've thought there was a lot of recycling and sustainability news in Kickstart the past week or so, believe me you would not believe how much we ignored as companies and organizations pumped out announcements timed for Earth Day.

There were releases by giants like Starbucks — rewards for bringing your own cup — and promises to recycle sauce packets by fast-food restaurants that sounded good, but actually they were a very tiny drop in a very big bucket of needed boosts in recycling and reuse.

But there were a few that still managed to stand out, such as Trex Co. Inc. working with film maker Charter Next Generation to reward schools for collecting film for recycling.

Students from 686 schools participated in the Trex Plastic Film Recycling Challenge in 2021-22, collecting a combined total of 323,586 pounds of polyethylene film.

Moscow Charter School in Moscow, Idaho, came out on top with 7,734 pounds of film and received $5,000 for its work.

Other $5,000 winners were E.L. Wright Middle School in Columbia, S.C., and North Cross High School in Roanoke, Va.

Taking second place in each of their categories, good for a $2,500 prize, were Woodland Elmentary School in Monroe Township, N.J., Einstein Middle School in Appleton, Wis., and York Community High School in Elmhurst, Ill.

Another $2,500 check went to students at Maple Grove Elementary School in Greenfield, Wis., "in recognition of their creativity and impressive activity on social media."

Meanwhile, drug store chain CVS Health marked Earth Day by announcing it would reduce the amount of virgin plastic it uses in its store-brand packaging by 50 percent by 2030, exceeding competitors Walgreens and Target, which have goals of 30 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

That word came April 21 from environmental investment group Green Century Capital Management, which said it's withdrawing a CVS shareholder proposal as a result of the company's plans.

If you're looking for more insight into what companies like CVS want from their plastics and packaging supply chain, take a look at its latest corporate environmental report.

It talks about CVS' $5 million investment in the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag, as well as working with the World Wildlife Fund in 2021 to do a brand audit of its plastics packaging that produced more goals and its work with ReSource:Plastic on sourcing strategies.

Thanks to PN's Steve Toloken for writing this up.

Why are those moves — from students and stores alike — important? Just look at the new numbers on recycling in the U.S.

In 2020, as communities and individuals worked around new rules related to battling COVID-19, post-consumer recycling rates fell 5.7 percent from 2019 numbers that were already low.

As PN's Jim Johnson writes, the share of bottles that were recycled dropped to 27.2 percent from 28.7 percent. And those are the items most likely to be recycled.

"The supply chain for plastics to be recycled [in 2020] was impacted just like everything else," Steve Alexander, CEO of the Association of Plastic Recyclers, said. "You can't recycle something that is not available to you."