by National Youth Council Member Diya
Quarantine is definitely a time for cleaning things out and getting organized. If you have found a surplus of dried out Crayola markers in one of your cabinets, do not throw them away just yet! Crayola has a great program where students can recycle their old markers back to the company. They partnered with JB Incorporated in August of 2013 and came up with a way to recycle a product that was typically hard to recycle. The program will take the markers and convert them into the liquid fuel. So, you may be wondering how this works. How can something we use to draw and color be transformed into a substance that powers things? Crayola melts down the waste plastic from the markers into a liquid paste. This liquid paste is then converted into a synthetic fuel. They have found that six-hundred markers can yield sixty gallons of fuel. However, individuals can not send their markers directly to the company; they must bring their markers to a collection site and donate them through a pre-established program. If your community or school does not already have a program with the Crayola Color Cycle, start one!
All you have to do is set up a collection site somewhere in your community or school. At the end of the collection period, pack the markers into a cardboard box and print out a Crayola shipping label. Crayola even takes care of the cost for shipping! This past year, my school worked with Crayola to implement this program. We collected a total of 443 markers, which equated to about 8.8 pounds. This next school year, we are contacting other elementary schools
in our community and different organizations around town (like churches, libraries, or temples) and expanding the program citywide. Even though you may not be able to actually start collecting the markers during this period of self-isolation, now could be a great time to start planning for the coming school year and coordinating your efforts to implement this project.
Go to Crayola Color Cycle now!
