Sun Valley Students' Recycling Petition Inspires Global Art Supply Company

Art supply company Dixon Ticonderoga announced a new recycling project in response to a petition launched by a group of students from asking Crayola to help the environment by recycling their markers.

The change.org petition started by the students, signed by more than 80,000  people across the country, asks Crayola executives to give consumers a convenient way to recycle the millions of Crayola markers manufactured  every year.

In response to the Crayola campaign, Dixon Ticonderoga’s new initiative creates a recycling program for the company’s line of Prang Art Markers, and allows schools to join a program to mail markers -- free of charge -- back to Dixon Ticonderoga for recycling.

“The students of Sun Valley Elementary certainly got my attention, and I immediately challenged my team to find a way to 100 percent recycle our Prang Art Markers,” Dixon Ticoderoga CEO Timothy Gomez said in a release. “This shows that even one classroom can change the way a global company does business."

Gomez plans to meet with the students to thank them for the campaign that inspired their recycling program -- and will provide a year's supply of Prang Art Markers to the school.
 
“What these students have accomplished cannot be understated," Gomez said. "I can’t wait to meet  them and to thank them personally.”

Comprised of children from kindergarten to fifth grade, “Kids Who Care” is a  project of Sun Valley School’s “Green Team” led by Land Wilson, in San  Rafael, California. Known as Mr. Land to students, Wilson says the kids  are humbled and excited by this latest development.

“We didn’t expect to get this much attention,” said Wilson. “It’s taken us all by surprise. But after learning how many plastic products end up in landfills, incinerators, and our oceans, these students decided to take  action and ask this major international company to help. I am so proud of what these students have done.”  

Back in May, that the company had no plans to create a recycling program due to a “lack of facilities and process.” Crayola officials could not be reached to comment on if they would reconsider.

Wilson says they hope Crayola will step up and match Dixon Ticonderoga’s  announcement.

“Now that the kids know recycling these markers is possible for companies like Crayola, I’m excited to see how the students respond to this  announcement,” said Wilson.

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