Paper drive helps schools earn trees

• Hudson Middle School Radical Recyclers

Student members of the Radical Recyclers group at the Hudson Middle School hope to collect 14 tons of paper this month during the Hudson Community Paper Drive. Pictured (L to R): Nick Smith, Lonnie Meinke, Zach Londo, Katie Kiesler, Gwen Conklin (Radical Recyclers advisor), Zea Bronson and Lydia Bentrott. Absent from photo: Jaren Phillips. Submitted photo

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A community-wide paper drive is being sponsored by the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Committee and the Middle School Radical Recyclers Club for the month of January. The public is asked to help in this effort by collecting and delivering paper to the semi-trailer parked in the north parking lot of the middle school (near Hudson Prairie) during school hours and on Saturdays from 9-11 a.m.

During the Saturday collections, volunteers will be on hand to help with unloading and stacking paper in the truck. All types of paper are accepted including: newspapers, magazines, catalogs, business paper, junk mail, telephone books, egg cartons, cardboard and paper bags. For ease of loading and stacking, place paper flat in paper grocery bags or bundle with twine. No plastic bags are accepted.

If the truck gets filled by Feb. 2, each school in the district will get new trees to plant in school forests and grounds.

The Hudson School District is also offering students, staff, administration and the public more options for some difficult to recycle items. Currently, the schools are collecting bottle caps for recycling through a program offered by Aveda. Caps are melted down by the company and made into new containers and caps for their products. Caps must have threaded necks such as the kind found on shampoo, water, soda, milk and other beverage bottles, flip top caps on tubes, laundry detergent and food product bottles (such as ketchup, peanut butter and mayonnaise). From now until April the schools will compete to see which school can collect the most caps.

The Radical Recyclers are still collecting yogurt containers for recycling through TerraCycle, Inc. Please bring empty, clean yogurt containers to Hudson Middle School office. Each container that is collected earns $0.02 - $0.05 for the recycling program. TerraCycle makes the containers into crayon tubs and seed starter kits.

For more information about recycling and efforts by the school district, check out the Radical Recyclers blog on the Hudson Middle School Web site at ms.hudson.k12. wi.us, click on blogs and then Radical Recyclers. For further information contact Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Committee chair Ann Mitchell at Houlton Elementary at (715) 377-3850.

Tags: middle school, education, hudson