Companies Join TerraCycle in Recycling Writing Utensils

Thanks to Heather for passing this along. What won’t we be able to recycle soon?

Three brands of writing utensils are now joining the ranks of the projects that can be collected and upcycled through TerraCycle’s Brigade programs.

Sharpie, Paper Mate and EXPO brands announced a new partnership with the New Jersey-based company in January. TerraCycle will now collect and reuse pens, markers and other writing instruments while also helping raise funds for schools, charities and non-profits nationwide.

Collection centers called "Writing Instrument Brigades" will be set up at participating locales, primarily in large corporations and schools where writing instruments are used most. For every writing instrument collected, two cents will be paid to a school, community group, charity or non-profit organization of the participant´s choice.

"Keeping one pen or marker out of a landfill may seem like a small contribution, but multiply that by the estimated $5 billion of writing instruments sold in the U.S. each year and it is a big opportunity to reduce waste to landfills," said Ben Gadbois, president of Markers, Highlighters, Art and Office Essentials for Newell Rubbermaid Office Products, maker of Sharpie, EXPO and Paper Mate products. "As the world´s leading producer of writing instruments, it´s not only our responsibility but our moral obligation to do our part to help the environment. TerraCycle offers us an innovative way to repurpose writing instruments after their useful life has expired."

The collected writing instruments will be dissembled and reprocessed to make new products.

The free program is available to any individual or group and is easy to operate. Interested parties sign up with TerraCycle to establish a Brigade location and then select the school, charity or non-profit group to which they want their collection funds directed. Each Brigade prints a pre-paid shipping label from TerraCycle´s Web site to ship the collected writing instruments to TerraCycle for upcycling into new products.