Schools

Sun Valley Students Convince Crayola To Go Green, Launch Recycling Program

The 'Kids Who Care' group pushed Crayola to create the 'Colorcycle' initiative and other art supply makers got inspired to change as well.

Crayola has created a new marker recycling program, thanks in a large part to students at San Rafael's Sun Valley Elementary School

"Kids Who Care," a student group at the school, and Land Wilson, a parent volunteer who works with the kids, started a campaign to get Crayola to recycle that drew national attention and inspired Dixon Ticonderoga, a rival art supply company, to change its own policies.

Watch the video above to hear Land and the kids explain their efforts in their own words.

The online petition posted to Change.org by Mike Perry in the spring of 2012 netted nearly 92,000 signatures.

"Every year, Crayola makes about half a billion markers -- enough markers to wrap around the earth more than three times!" the petition stated.

The kids then asked that Crayola do just a little to help save the world it was making circles around.

"We want Crayola to 'make their mark' by starting a 'take-back' recycling program for their markers," the petition stated.

The petition was declared a "victory" this month by the Change.org, an online petition platform that empowers people to create the change they want to see.

"Crayola sent us a letter saying that it listened and is helping to reduce waste and pollution with a new program to 'ColorCycle' markers," Perry reported on Change.org

The initiative, launched on Earth Day, allows students in K-12 schools across the continental United States and parts of Canada to collect used markers and send them to a conversion facility where they will be transformed into clean-burning fuel. Crayola pays the shipping costs.

The Marin Independent Journal reported last week that, so far, 125 schools have signed up for Colorcycle program.


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