To the Editor:

If the Sustainable Princeton (SP) Great Ideas Breakfast on January 31 at Princeton Public Library is any indication, reducing waste in our community is important to many of us. While there are worthy ideas for waste reduction in the planning stages, there is an easy way we can decrease the damage that tossed plastics have on our environment right now, and by doing so, we can also support local schools.

Terracycle, the local company that “upcycles” conventionally not-recyclable materials into new and useful products (like kites, pencil cases, and speakers), is well known to many Princeton residents, but did you know how easy it is to save commonly used plastics from the landfill (and from finding their way into our water, food, and air) while benefitting local schools? Littlebrook and Community Park Elementary schools both participate in Terracycle ‘Brigades’ by which the school collects a particular item like dairy tubs (all types and brands of containers plus lids and foil tops) and receives money in return for mailing these items to Terracycle.

You need not have children at these schools to donate to their brigades, and the money the schools receive in return support programs such as the Edible Garden at Community Park or Littlebrook’s Joe Fund, which provides need-based summer camp scholarships. Ted Holstein, a teacher and the Terracycle coordinator at Littlebrook School indicated that in the past six years LB has collected 21,801 energy/granola bar wrappers resulting in $1,252 for the Joe Fund.

Can you imagine how much waste can be saved from the landfill (and how many more resultant dollars could be invested in our schools) if a larger portion of the community participated? Do you currently toss these items? Bring them to a local Terracycle brigade instead! Check PTO websites (Littlebrook: https://sites.google.com/site/littlebrookespto/fundraising/terracycle, Community Park: www.cppto.org/activities/go-green)websites for accepted items and dates.

The choice is simple: do we resign ourselves to an unhealthy planet by filling our land with trash, or do we choose to “upcycle” it while helping local schools?

Alexandra Bar-Cohen

Snowden Lane