CFK “Marches” Into Spring

Ha ha, pardon the pun.  We’re just so excited about Spring!  The cold weather is hopefully on its way out, and we can’t wait to see those flowers again!

Now is the time for YOU to start thinking about Spring too!

• Do your spring cleaning early this year and gather up all the recyclables you just couldn’t get to during the hectic winter.
  Click here for shipping labels.
• Start thinking about how you’re going to celebrate Earth Day!  Collection Drives and Contests are our favorite way, and if you want your collection drive to end on Earth Day, you should start by March 15th! Click here for an information packet.
• Liven up your classroom, hallways, cafeteria, (the entire school) with our Decorate to Educate program. By giving each recycler a construction paper flower, leaf, or other shape, you can start your own recycling mural, or hanging decor! Click here for more information.

How will you celebrate Spring?  We want to hear about it. Click here to send an email, or post your comments.

We Love Our Pets!

February is Responsible Pet Owners Month!

CFK is a partner of Recycle 4 Pets…have you checked them out?  Recycle your old electronics, and send the proceeds on to the:

or your favorite animal organization, shelter, or charity!

Let’s be responsible pet owners this month and take care of all the little critters out there that need our help. We’ll save junk from those landfills as well, making the world a greener place for our favorite furry (or fishy) friends!

Click here for fliers, free shipping labels, and to enroll your organization, or to get more info!

Decorate to Educate

Classroom looking a little drab?

Decorate to Educate with CFK!

This is a fun idea that we absolutely love.  The best part is that it can be adapted to every holiday, occasion, lesson, or school event.  And it also makes classrooms beautiful, while giving students recognition and encouraging recycling.

Here’s how it works: Each student that brings in an item to recycle is given a construction paper cutout.  It can be a heart for Valentine’s Day, a tree for Arbor Day, a shamrock on St. Patty’s, a flower in spring, or our good old standbys–a recycle symbol or earth.  Let the student write their name on it, and hang the shapes from the ceiling!  (All you’ll need for that is a paperclip, clothespin, or some manner of fasteners, and a piece of string.) You can even staple them to bulletin boards, or tape them to the walls.

And there you have it.  A classroom decoration, recycling lesson, and pat on the back all in one.  It’s like a trifecta of awesomeness.

(In case you’re one of those people who reads without clicking links, just thought we’d tell you that if you click on the shape suggestions above, you’ll go to a template that you can print and use.  HOW PERFECT IS THAT?)

Your classroom just became the opposite of drab.

We All Have Dreams

81 years ago, the man who had a famous dream was born.

Today, many people are in need.  In need of shelter, food, a helping hand.  In the spirit of this national day of service, let’s come together for a greater good.  Click here for a shipping label, and send in your old electronics to benefit the earthquake victims in Haiti.  Print the label, write “Haiti” in the return address, and gather your friends’ and neighbors’ old cell phones, PDAs, digital cameras, and iPods.  Then, just drop the box in the mail.  We’ll recycle your old electronics and send the proceeds to the relief effort in Haiti.

CFK Top 3

If you’ve been with CFK for any length of time, you know how nutty we are about contests and collection drives.  We love them, we are obsessed with them, if contests and collection drives were a person, and CFK was a person, we would surely get down on one knee amid rose petals and violin music and beg it to marry us.  We’re that serious.

Ok, maybe we’ve just been watching too much of The Bachelor. But that’s neither here nor there.

There’s no question that contests and collection drives bring in the funds.  We’ve had groups double their previous year’s earnings just during their 6 week contest.  One group of less than 10 Girl Scouts raised $700 during theirs.  The truth is, they just work!

So when should you have one?  Well, we’ve crunched the numbers, analyzed the data, and made the charts, and we’ve come up with the 3 Hottest Times to Have a Contest or Collection Drive….

1. POST-HOLIDAY! Even though we’re in a recession, and less people are getting new gadgets, post-holiday contests have been going strong! Take advantage of the new cell phones, video games, iPods, and DVDs that were gifted this holiday season.  This time of year, people are also feeling generous and wanting to help out their community.  Round up your group and start your contest now!

2. KICK-OFF TIME! Jumpstart your new school year with a contest.  Starting the year off strong gets your group in the habit of recycling from the very beginning.  Our research shows that groups that hold contests and drives increase their earnings after the contest is over.  Once people get used to recycling, they’ll keep it up all year long!  So start off on the right foot–with a drive!

3.  EARTH DAY! Earth Day is CFK’s favorite day, by far.  Coordinating your contest around Earth Day (which is April 22, and this year marks the 40th anniversary), guarantees a whole mess of recycling programming!  There are all kinds of Earth Day materials out there, click here, here, or here for a few of them.  Use these to get your community green-minded and involved in all kinds of recycling.  Plan to start or end your contest on Earth Day and celebrate!

We’ve got all kinds of materials to help you get your contest started: Contest Packet, Collection Drive Packet, Cell Phone Drive Packet…all available online!

Finding Volunteers

NOT THE PTA!!!

We all know the dread, the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach.  Your child has just brought home cookie dough to sell to the neighbors, wrapping paper for you to peddle at work, and cheap bric-a-brac you have to guilt your friends into buying to support the school’s new playground.  Worse yet, the PTA is looking for volunteers.  And the President made eye-contact with you at the last meeting.  You know you’re going to be asked.

We know how you feel.  But trust us, it’s a lot easier to get support for a program that gives free money to schools, saves electronics from landfills, and promotes recycling and education than it is to get someone to buy 200 rolls of wrapping paper with dancing snow fairies on it.

So, here are some tried and true ways to get volunteers rounded up for your CFK program:

1. Who’s the most passionate or creative person in your organization?  Who’s a go-getter?  Who loves a challenge?  This person is the one to ask. Tell them about CFK and pick their brain.  We’ve found that the groups that have the most enthusiastic coordinator make the most $$$.

2. Make sure EVERYONE knows about your program.  Tell the janitor, cafeteria staff, PTA, principal, secretary, all the teachers, all the aides; seriously, we mean EVERYONE.  Let everyone know so that everyone can help.  Make your program open to any and all who want to get involved!

3. Recruit the kids!  Get the older students, recycling club, before and after school program, or student council involved.  Checking lists, packing boxes, and keeping track of earnings are all great, practical ways to teach math, money management, and RECYCLING!

4. Hold a Recycling Party!  Get your gang rounded up, eat some snacks, pack CFK boxes, and maybe play some recycling games.

5. Take turns!  Mama was right, sharing makes things better.  Trade off the responsibility of gathering and sending items.  First grade can send in January, the janitor can take February, Mr. Johnson’s 3rd grade class gets March, and the principal gets April!

6. Let your school district office know you are collecting. District offices might have an idea about staff members who can help run your program, or they can serve as a great place to get the word out about your program. Download a flier here, and email it to them with your information.

7. Take advantage of other events.  Is the PTA planning a Bake Sale?  Join up with them, setting up a side table for recyclables.  Is the Booster Club selling concessions at the big game?  Have them set up a collection spot while they’re there.  Combining events means more hands and more help!

New Year, New Beginnings

Let’s talk about new beginnings.  I know, I know, it’s hard to do when lots of us are still trudging through snow.

But why not bring a bit of spring early?  How about bringing some green to the wintertime?

Starting a recycling or environmental club in your area is a wonderful way to get your community involved in recycling.  Schools, neighborhood associations, scouting troops, businesses, and churches are all great places to start recycling initiatives.  Here’s how to get your recycling club off the ground:

1. Find an excited, passionate person or group of people to help you get it started.
2. Make goals for your club.  These can be extremely simple, like putting out collection containers in a public place.  You decide what will benefit your community the most, and put that plan into action!
3. Contact CFK for fliers, posters, and more ideas on how to amp up your club’s activities.
4. Spread the word!  Get the news out to your community, and get everyone involved!

For more help starting a recycling club, contact us or visit our Ways To Grow page.  Or click here, here, here, or here for fun and easy ways to get the word out.

RING IT IN!

Here we go!  CFK’s New Years Goals are…

• Get as many groups as possible to actively participate in CFK.  We want you to be excited about recycling and earning money!  Click here for info on how to get started.
• Educate our participants on how to make their program the best for them.  We want your shipments to contain the right items and be packed well so you can earn the most money!
• Help foster creativity and motivation in our participants.  We know education and environmentalism go hand in hand, and we want to support both as much as possible.  Check out our Ways to Grow page for creative ways to integrate recycling into your lesson plans, or unique ways to involve your community.

We want to hear your New Year’s Resolutions, so be in touch this next year, and let us know what we can do to make 2010 healthy and happy for the Earth and your community!

You best recognize….

Recognition is the name of the game.  We’ve found that groups who acknowledge and recognize their participants bring in more recyclables and more money.

Do you want to reward your recyclers but you’re a bit tight on the budget?  Here are some free and easy ways we’ve discovered to reward your recyclers…

• “Caught You Recycling” cards, available on the CFK website.  Download and print, then hand them out to your participants!

• Extra recess time, lunch with the principal, and homework passes are great (and FREE!) ways to reward recyclers.

• Donations from local businesses.  Loganville Elementary asked their local pizza shop to donate a pie to the class who brought in the most items.  Most local places are happy to support your recycling efforts–ask around!

• Tape it up.  Check out what Alton Elementary did…they gave each student a length of duct tape when they brought in a recyclable.  Then, the students got to duct tape their principal to the wall!  The kids loved it!

• Pucker up.  Sandford Middle School promised their students the ultimate incentive–public humiliation of their teachers.  If the students brought in a certain number of items, the counselors would eat baby food, the principal would get handcuffed and arrested, and the coach would have to kiss a real live pig.  Click here for more pictures.

Do you have ideas for free and easy ways to recognize your recyclers?  Tell us about it!

Snowflakes, Snowboarding, and Cell Phones

Check out these crazy gloves we found while surfin’ the Nets….Drumroll please….

They’re Bluetooth Cell Phone Snowboard Gloves!

That’s right, even while you’re out on the slopes you can chat it up.  They’re water-resistant, and have a microphone and speaker built in to the palm and thumb.  The wrist even vibrates when you get a call.  All of us here in CO are saving our pennies for these bad boys.

CFK can’t recycle these cell phone gloves, but we CAN recycle over 933 other models of cell phones.  We’ll even give you $50 extra if you collect 100 cell phones for recycling in 6 weeks.

Here’s what you need to do….collect all the 2009 cell phones that got upgraded this holiday season and send them in to CFK for recycling.

Ask:

• neighbors
• colleagues
• the person in line in front of you at the grocery store
• anyone who will listen

We want to recycle your old cell phones, and there’s a group out there that needs help fundraising.  Let’s work together!

Click HERE for more info on the $50 giveaway.

Click HERE for a list of the cell phones we recycle and their values.

Click HERE for more info on recycling items with CFK.

Click HERE for the address to send us the Bluetooth Cell Phone Gloves as a present.

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