by AF 0203 j3 — February 3, 2010—Sharpie, Paper Mate and EXPO, three of the world’s most recognized writing and marking brands, have formed a new partnership with TerraCycle, the pioneering upcycling company that finds new ways to repurpose otherwise throwaway items. The partnership will create the world’s first program to 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 at a Writing Instrument Brigade collection center, two cents will be paid to a school, community group, charity or non-profit organization of the participant’s choice. Overall, the collection efforts will reduce landfill proliferation, educate and inspire consumers to get involved, and provide much needed funding to schools and non-profit groups nationwide.
“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.
The collected writing instruments will be dissembled and/or reprocessed to make new products.
The free program is available to any individual or group and is easy to operate. Interested parties simply 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. TerraCycle will donate two cents per writing instrument to the collecting Brigade’s chosen organization.
For more information on the Writing Instruments Brigade, visit any of these Web sites: www.sharpie.com, www.papermate.com , www.expomarkers.com. Or visit the TerraCycle Web site.
