I'm back! Did ya miss me? Still settling in to ma new digs and West Coast life- a whole new city of Trash to explore! Been here about a month, but I'm back from the hiatus! As promised, here is the last installment of the TerraCycle series!
All good things must come to an end, even a fabulously witty blog post series such as this one. College also must eventually come to an end, for most of us at least. With the daunting feeling of "Life After College" approaching, I knew I would have to decide what would become of "my baby."
In college, it's hard to think of the long game when the experience has a deadline. After TerraCycle really started becoming successful and my ego was sufficiently stroked as to how well it was going, I started making plans to set it in motion for success after my graduation. For one, the norming process I talk about in Part I, never stops. New people enter college every year and a successful program sufficiently ushers them into the culture you've created. One way we did this was by this really cool commercial that was made for the campus TV Station. But it's also about leadership. I didn't want to just hand the job onto the next Hillel person who was there, I wanted them to want to own the project even if they weren't as invested in Trash as I was and let's face it, no one was going to be as into Trash as I was.
But I was surprised at how the mini army had taken ownership of the project and even though TerraCycle was "my baby," it was their baby too. People who had been elbow deep in it with me from the beginning were just as invested as I was in the mission and impact the program was having. Programs are only as strong as the people in them and that is exactly who I was leaving TerraCycle in the hands of. (Now I heard whispers that the program got dropped a little, as expected. But I met the current girl from Hillel who is heading the project and it seems to be in good hands).
Implementing a successful program is hard. Letting go is harder. But any program is only as successful as the people in it. All the trash warriors and partnerships we created are the reason I left TerraCycle at Virginia Tech feeling like I did something that worked. Now, like any project, I always feel like I could have done more, but after writing this series, I realize how much was done, by students, in such a short time. Hashtag Satisfied.
By the time I graduated, we had diverted over 20,000 items from the landfill in three and a half years, resulting in about $200 raised for our service trip to New Orleans. Not too shabby for a project inspired by a banana bar.
Things we were collecting: cookie, candy, & energy bar wrappers, chip bags, solo cups, dairy containers
Showing posts with label TerraCycle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TerraCycle. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Thursday, December 18, 2014
TerraCycle Part III: Speaking of Solo...
Now, not that Solo really promoted more healthy activities then consuming an exorbitant amount of junk food, it did present a unique opportunity to access a bigger student population and catapult our program to new heights.
Now I know this may come as a shock to some of you but, college kids LOVE to drink from plastic cups. Dum dum dum! Between late night get together's and football tailgate parties, Solo Cups quickly became our most profitable brigade. It also presented a whole new challenge of collecting, storing and shipping. Up until this point, we were only sending in TC boxes once a semester. However, plastic cups were bulky and therefore harder to store for long periods, and smelled like, really smelled, so we were sending boxes weekly.
Collecting took about a semester to be in full swing and had a two part system. First, when we heard of a party or tailgate we would talk to the host about setting up garbage bags or coordinate a pick up in the morning after clean up (in some instances we even offered to assist with the clean up).
Second, after procuring gloves, heavy duty garbage bags and trash grabbers, we would walk around apartment complexes and pick up the cups from yards. It was quiet a sight, people thought we were doing community service. We scouted out the best complexes and learned the clean up schedule so we could collect before the grounds crews went out. In one case, we talked to the crew and they collected for us! The hardest part was recruiting folks to wake up on a Saturday or Sunday to come out and collect there's something relaxing about being up before everyone else and just hanging out with the Trash...
We were collecting enough cups each weekend that we were sending out shipments weekly. Luckily, my apartment had a porch that we could store/pack them up on. I'd like to take a moment to graciously thank my college roommates for allowing me to store thousands of used, stale beer filled cups on our porch for a better part of a year. Without your undying support of becoming the Trashiest Trash Girl I could possibly be, I would never have gotten to this point in my life...It is amazing what you can accomplish with heavy duty cleaning gloves a strong stomach.
The second year of the Solo Cup adventure, the project outgrew our porch and we got new neighbors who didn't feel so keen on the smell so we had to implement a new storage strategy:
Keeping the cans at the new Hillel Building made it easier for others to drop off cups, and allowed for an easier transition for the next Trashster to take over.
Like all projects, Solo Cup mania hit a few bumps. As students, it is really hard to wake up on Saturday/Sunday mornings, and even harder to recruit people to do it Sundays are a big sleep & homework day. But even so, by the time I graduated, we had collected almost 10,000 solo cups in 4 semesters. Like any good project, I think the success of our the Solo Cups in particular was due to understanding our audience and knowing what "resources" we had to work with.
Things we were collecting: cookie, candy, chip, energy bar, solo cups
Look for the last installment of the TerraCycle series: Legacy & Letting Go
Now I know this may come as a shock to some of you but, college kids LOVE to drink from plastic cups. Dum dum dum! Between late night get together's and football tailgate parties, Solo Cups quickly became our most profitable brigade. It also presented a whole new challenge of collecting, storing and shipping. Up until this point, we were only sending in TC boxes once a semester. However, plastic cups were bulky and therefore harder to store for long periods, and smelled like, really smelled, so we were sending boxes weekly.
Collecting took about a semester to be in full swing and had a two part system. First, when we heard of a party or tailgate we would talk to the host about setting up garbage bags or coordinate a pick up in the morning after clean up (in some instances we even offered to assist with the clean up).
Signs to advertise at parties to recycle cups
Second, after procuring gloves, heavy duty garbage bags and trash grabbers, we would walk around apartment complexes and pick up the cups from yards. It was quiet a sight, people thought we were doing community service. We scouted out the best complexes and learned the clean up schedule so we could collect before the grounds crews went out. In one case, we talked to the crew and they collected for us! The hardest part was recruiting folks to wake up on a Saturday or Sunday to come out and collect there's something relaxing about being up before everyone else and just hanging out with the Trash...
We were collecting enough cups each weekend that we were sending out shipments weekly. Luckily, my apartment had a porch that we could store/pack them up on. I'd like to take a moment to graciously thank my college roommates for allowing me to store thousands of used, stale beer filled cups on our porch for a better part of a year. Without your undying support of becoming the Trashiest Trash Girl I could possibly be, I would never have gotten to this point in my life...It is amazing what you can accomplish with heavy duty cleaning gloves a strong stomach.
Our sizable porch made it easy to store and pack the cups for shipment
The second year of the Solo Cup adventure, the project outgrew our porch and we got new neighbors who didn't feel so keen on the smell so we had to implement a new storage strategy:
Keeping the cans at the new Hillel Building made it easier for others to drop off cups, and allowed for an easier transition for the next Trashster to take over.
Like all projects, Solo Cup mania hit a few bumps. As students, it is really hard to wake up on Saturday/Sunday mornings, and even harder to recruit people to do it Sundays are a big sleep & homework day. But even so, by the time I graduated, we had collected almost 10,000 solo cups in 4 semesters. Like any good project, I think the success of our the Solo Cups in particular was due to understanding our audience and knowing what "resources" we had to work with.
Things we were collecting: cookie, candy, chip, energy bar, solo cups
Look for the last installment of the TerraCycle series: Legacy & Letting Go
Monday, December 15, 2014
TerraCycle Part II: Expansion & Obsession
A successful program isn't only about a strong idea, or plan to "scale up" but recognizing where you fall flat and creating a plan to overcome it. For me, most of the time the answer is a "who": Who do I know that will do this better? Who has the skills or network? Who is willing to touch other people's trash?
Starting with Hillel, while being a great place to jump start the program, came with a few constraints that prevented TerraCycle from realizing it's fullest potential. Working with such a specific group of students on campus made it difficult to branch out and gain traction with other groups on campus, especially environmental ones. Trash just wasn't on their radar, they were busy with transportation, energy and hooping on the quad haha. We were ready to grow, but how? Or rather...who?
We wanted to grow big and grow fast. Our first approach for a partner was the campus Office of Sustainability. They were super into the idea and loved the initiative at a student level. But, could not condone the activity on campus- period. Sustaina-office say wha? Because the contract they had with the waste collection company was based on tonnage picked up, they were not allowed to diverge waste, at all. Meaning, any diversion of waste from normal garbage/recycling was a breech of the contract. They explained they were having the same problem with the Game Day recycling program they were trying to implement during football games. And in one email, my dreams of the first college campus to have a fully integrated TerraCycle program blew up in smoke... This was actually a blessing in disguise, because I don't think we would have had the capacity as students to deal with that much trash.
Then came Anna who glowed with "what if possibilities": Partner small to gain big. Anna, who was a part of the Equestrian club on campus, got them to partner with us. In an instant, our reach doubled. Then, as a member of the Marching Virginians don't laugh, I got to go to all the games and Bowl games for free...it was awesome... I started collecting pop tart wrappers and chip bags from our game day breakfast & lunches. We're talking 300+ chip bags every home game. And finally, we partnered with the local one screen movie house downtown for candy wrappers. With our three major partners, we tripled our intake, extended our network and educated more students on TerraCycle and waste streams. Now partnerships can be difficult, and delicate, but these worked because we got them all on board with the mission and stuck to the script. Does celebratory dance for strong community partnerships! With a small trash collecting army behind me, we had grown the program to noteworthy size. It's all about the 'who'.
All this talking and partnering meant I was thinking, talking or doing TerraCycle pretty much constantly, man, did I ever go to class? Trash Obsession checklist: You've recruited a small dedicated group to be elbow deep in trash the day before finals start every semester because you've convinced them it's cathartic, Check. You're walking around campus and strangers are handing you TerraCycle'able trash, Check. You're in a meeting completely unrelated to TerraCycle yet you bring it up when you notice the snacks are in wrappers you're collecting, Check. You fill half your suitcase with TC trash during your service trip to New Orleans, Check. You're introduced to new people as, "Oh yea, this is Rachel, the Trash Girl," Check. Hashtag no shame.
One day, one of my friends asked, "Couldn't we collect something that didn't encourage us to eat so much junk?" And, as on cue as a "Let's Go" being answered with a "Hokies" meaning, right on cue for those non Hokie Nation-ers, TerraCycle announced its partnership with Solo...
Check in next week for a post about our most successful (and dirtiest) brigade.
Things we were collecting: cookie, candy, chip, energy bar wrappers
Starting with Hillel, while being a great place to jump start the program, came with a few constraints that prevented TerraCycle from realizing it's fullest potential. Working with such a specific group of students on campus made it difficult to branch out and gain traction with other groups on campus, especially environmental ones. Trash just wasn't on their radar, they were busy with transportation, energy and hooping on the quad haha. We were ready to grow, but how? Or rather...who?
We wanted to grow big and grow fast. Our first approach for a partner was the campus Office of Sustainability. They were super into the idea and loved the initiative at a student level. But, could not condone the activity on campus- period. Sustaina-office say wha? Because the contract they had with the waste collection company was based on tonnage picked up, they were not allowed to diverge waste, at all. Meaning, any diversion of waste from normal garbage/recycling was a breech of the contract. They explained they were having the same problem with the Game Day recycling program they were trying to implement during football games. And in one email, my dreams of the first college campus to have a fully integrated TerraCycle program blew up in smoke... This was actually a blessing in disguise, because I don't think we would have had the capacity as students to deal with that much trash.
Then came Anna who glowed with "what if possibilities": Partner small to gain big. Anna, who was a part of the Equestrian club on campus, got them to partner with us. In an instant, our reach doubled. Then, as a member of the Marching Virginians don't laugh, I got to go to all the games and Bowl games for free...it was awesome... I started collecting pop tart wrappers and chip bags from our game day breakfast & lunches. We're talking 300+ chip bags every home game. And finally, we partnered with the local one screen movie house downtown for candy wrappers. With our three major partners, we tripled our intake, extended our network and educated more students on TerraCycle and waste streams. Now partnerships can be difficult, and delicate, but these worked because we got them all on board with the mission and stuck to the script. Does celebratory dance for strong community partnerships! With a small trash collecting army behind me, we had grown the program to noteworthy size. It's all about the 'who'.
All this talking and partnering meant I was thinking, talking or doing TerraCycle pretty much constantly, man, did I ever go to class? Trash Obsession checklist: You've recruited a small dedicated group to be elbow deep in trash the day before finals start every semester because you've convinced them it's cathartic, Check. You're walking around campus and strangers are handing you TerraCycle'able trash, Check. You're in a meeting completely unrelated to TerraCycle yet you bring it up when you notice the snacks are in wrappers you're collecting, Check. You fill half your suitcase with TC trash during your service trip to New Orleans, Check. You're introduced to new people as, "Oh yea, this is Rachel, the Trash Girl," Check. Hashtag no shame.
One day, one of my friends asked, "Couldn't we collect something that didn't encourage us to eat so much junk?" And, as on cue as a "Let's Go" being answered with a "Hokies" meaning, right on cue for those non Hokie Nation-ers, TerraCycle announced its partnership with Solo...
Check in next week for a post about our most successful (and dirtiest) brigade.
Things we were collecting: cookie, candy, chip, energy bar wrappers
Monday, December 8, 2014
TerraCycle Part I: Implementation & Norming
This is actually the second post is a series on my biggest trash adventure/project to date. You can find the first one here. I'd be amiss not sharing this set of stories because it was such an integral part of development & understanding of trash.
After discovering TerraCycle and realizing the potential for growth on a college campus. The secret to the success of the program was teaming up with Hillel @ Virginia Tech (the Jewish student life org I was involved in). Approaching an established group who I knew would be down to engage in this kind of project, and had the man power in place already, was the perfect platform on which to launch the campaign.
When you send TerraCycle the things you've collected, they in turn make a 2 cent donation to a non-profit of your choice. Hillel @ Virginia Tech, which is a branch of Hillel International, a non-profit, could use the money we "raised" as a fundraiser for our alternative break program. It was the final hook for the partnership. A holistic system of service, learning, environmentalism and fundraising. It was a win-win for all involved
The idea was simple: tell everyone in Hillel (roughly 400 or so students) what we were collecting & put a box in the student center where most of us hung out. Sounded easy, and for the most part it was.
First thing we did was create a box for collection. Thanks Anna! We also started posting on social media what we were collecting and what TerraCycle was. Friday night, when we would gather for Shabbat dinners, also where the largest contingent of students were at the same time during the week, I would stand up during announcements and tell people to "give me your trash." And the nickname was born! Eventually people did- during announcements, give me trash.
Once the foundation was laid for what we were doing and what we were collecting, it became less about implementation and more about norming the idea of separating TerraCycle from other waste, just like people do with their recycling. Norming is about constant reminders, educating people on why it was easy and important, improving signage and message and just nagging the hell out of people. We talked about it constantly- I talked about it..whats more than constantly?
You know you've fully normed your peers when two of your friends frantically and apologetically tell you the cleaning lady threw out their TerraCycle box and subsequent wrappers...
The "norming" stage never ends in a project like this. Throughout my time at school I was always reminding people to sort their trash, educating people, and recruiting others to the cause. The lesson learned here was: start small. A project like this can get out of hand or become overwhelming pretty quickly. By targeting my audience to a group of already engaged students, I knew the project would take off.
Look for the next installment next week where I'll be talking about expanding the project to capture the attention of a wider audience, and when this stopped being a hobby and became an obsession.
Brigades we were a part of: cookie wrappers, candy wrappers, chip bags
After discovering TerraCycle and realizing the potential for growth on a college campus. The secret to the success of the program was teaming up with Hillel @ Virginia Tech (the Jewish student life org I was involved in). Approaching an established group who I knew would be down to engage in this kind of project, and had the man power in place already, was the perfect platform on which to launch the campaign.
When you send TerraCycle the things you've collected, they in turn make a 2 cent donation to a non-profit of your choice. Hillel @ Virginia Tech, which is a branch of Hillel International, a non-profit, could use the money we "raised" as a fundraiser for our alternative break program. It was the final hook for the partnership. A holistic system of service, learning, environmentalism and fundraising. It was a win-win for all involved
The idea was simple: tell everyone in Hillel (roughly 400 or so students) what we were collecting & put a box in the student center where most of us hung out. Sounded easy, and for the most part it was.
The first TerraCycle box placed in the student center.
First thing we did was create a box for collection. Thanks Anna! We also started posting on social media what we were collecting and what TerraCycle was. Friday night, when we would gather for Shabbat dinners, also where the largest contingent of students were at the same time during the week, I would stand up during announcements and tell people to "give me your trash." And the nickname was born! Eventually people did- during announcements, give me trash.
Once the foundation was laid for what we were doing and what we were collecting, it became less about implementation and more about norming the idea of separating TerraCycle from other waste, just like people do with their recycling. Norming is about constant reminders, educating people on why it was easy and important, improving signage and message and just nagging the hell out of people. We talked about it constantly- I talked about it..whats more than constantly?
A sign reminding our roommates what to put in the TerraCycle bag.
You know you've fully normed your peers when two of your friends frantically and apologetically tell you the cleaning lady threw out their TerraCycle box and subsequent wrappers...
The "norming" stage never ends in a project like this. Throughout my time at school I was always reminding people to sort their trash, educating people, and recruiting others to the cause. The lesson learned here was: start small. A project like this can get out of hand or become overwhelming pretty quickly. By targeting my audience to a group of already engaged students, I knew the project would take off.
Look for the next installment next week where I'll be talking about expanding the project to capture the attention of a wider audience, and when this stopped being a hobby and became an obsession.
Brigades we were a part of: cookie wrappers, candy wrappers, chip bags
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Sadly Solo
You know you have a trash problem when your friends send you things like this on a regular basis...
Look out in the next week for the first in a series of blog posts on how we diverted over 10,000 solo cups from a landfill!
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Newton had his apple..
And I had my banana.
It's been rough trying to decide what my very first post should be. I'm doing a little back tracking since my relationship with trash really kicked into high gear 5 years ago. So I don't want this to be a blog all in the past tense, but also some of my best stories, musings and anecdotes come from that time. So just be prepared for posts to be "and today I..." as well as "in 2009 I..." because hey, this blog is really for me. It's a testament to something I truly care about/obsess over is there really a line between the two? on a regular basis and a place to throw up thoughts. Plus now I can be all cool and tell people, "I blog". It's a true win-win. So, I'm going to start from the beginning. The Big Bang version of my "Trash Girl" universe.
Some context: I was the recycle queen in High School. The one who knew where all the blue bins around the school were, whose friends gave gifts about living a greener life or recycled out of plastic bottles when you still needed to go to a specialty gift store to find such commodities. My mission was to save the planet, and everyone gave me the necessary consumer goods to get there.
Enter my college catalyst:
I was a freshman at Virginia Tech and despite having been rated the best college campus food in the country, was munching on an Odwalla Banana Nut bar. The bar was delicious, but it also had this symbol on the back for TerraCycle (which I had never heard of) but, being a recycling princess, was curious and looked it up. TerraCycle, in a nut shell, see what I did there, takes traditionally non-recyclable trash and finds ways to upcycle it. Upcycling, unlike recycling, finds ways to reuse materials in their current form. So this granola bar wrapper will turn into a kite, or backpack. You sign up for a brigade to collect specific products, ranging from granola wrappers to cigarette butts, Solo Cups and old pens. In return for collecting and sending them the materials, TerraCycle deposits a $0.02 donation into your account to contribute to a non-profit of your choice. I was enamored, excited, inspired, jumping up and down in my dorm room. This had possibilities to be great.
I got so excited about my granola bar that I kept a shoe box full of them in my dorm room I'm sure my roommate would have been thrilled had she found out... The project out grew the shoe box and skyrocketed. As an active Hillel (responsible for Jewish life on campus) student, I used them as platform for which to launch this awesome project bigger than my own collection. And, as a non-profit, Hillel collected the donations and put it towards our Service-Learning Spring Break projects. Which created a holistic system of environmental and civic action awesomeness. The rest, as they say, is history.
All in all, when I graduated we had prevented over 20,000 items from entering the local landfill resulting in a bit over $200 towards our service trips. That contributed to the 6.8 billion units of trash TerraCycle has collected to date. One sliver of one piece of something bigger than big.
Look for future posts on a more in depth look about TerraCycle. I'm thinking a mini series...like Planet Earth narrated by Morgan Freeman style, but Planet Trash narrated by Ellen Degeneres she'd be hysterical! I'll make a few calls...
It's been rough trying to decide what my very first post should be. I'm doing a little back tracking since my relationship with trash really kicked into high gear 5 years ago. So I don't want this to be a blog all in the past tense, but also some of my best stories, musings and anecdotes come from that time. So just be prepared for posts to be "and today I..." as well as "in 2009 I..." because hey, this blog is really for me. It's a testament to something I truly care about/obsess over is there really a line between the two? on a regular basis and a place to throw up thoughts. Plus now I can be all cool and tell people, "I blog". It's a true win-win. So, I'm going to start from the beginning. The Big Bang version of my "Trash Girl" universe.
Some context: I was the recycle queen in High School. The one who knew where all the blue bins around the school were, whose friends gave gifts about living a greener life or recycled out of plastic bottles when you still needed to go to a specialty gift store to find such commodities. My mission was to save the planet, and everyone gave me the necessary consumer goods to get there.
Enter my college catalyst:
My first TerraCycle collection box in our student center. One of a few around campus.
I got so excited about my granola bar that I kept a shoe box full of them in my dorm room I'm sure my roommate would have been thrilled had she found out... The project out grew the shoe box and skyrocketed. As an active Hillel (responsible for Jewish life on campus) student, I used them as platform for which to launch this awesome project bigger than my own collection. And, as a non-profit, Hillel collected the donations and put it towards our Service-Learning Spring Break projects. Which created a holistic system of environmental and civic action awesomeness. The rest, as they say, is history.
All in all, when I graduated we had prevented over 20,000 items from entering the local landfill resulting in a bit over $200 towards our service trips. That contributed to the 6.8 billion units of trash TerraCycle has collected to date. One sliver of one piece of something bigger than big.
Look for future posts on a more in depth look about TerraCycle. I'm thinking a mini series...like Planet Earth narrated by Morgan Freeman style, but Planet Trash narrated by Ellen Degeneres she'd be hysterical! I'll make a few calls...
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