In With The New…

While you are busy making room for the new…

 are you left wondering where to put the old?

CFK would like to remind you that many schools and organizations would love you to recycle those older electronics! Not only would you be helping your community, you would be saving the planet.  Start the year off on a positive step and cross off those resolutions!

We recycle:

Cell Phones, Laser Cartridges, Laptops, eReaders, Tablets, iPads, iPods, Video Games and Consoles

Please click here for more information or call Cartridges for Kids at 800-420-0235

 

Cartridges for Kids is wishing a you a very Happy and Safe New Year!

We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day. 

 ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

The Holidays Are Here!

Cartridges for Kids is wishing you and your family a very safe and Merry Christmas!

We hope this year has brought you much joy and delight and we hope it continues through out the season and into the upcoming year!

Bet you didn’t know….

“Jingle Bells” was first written for Thanksgiving and then became one of the most popular Christmas songs.

Electric lights for trees were first used in 1895.

Clearing up a common misconception, in Greek, X means Christ. That is where the word “X-Mas” comes from. 

” Rudolph” was actually created by Montgomery Ward in the late 1930′s for a holiday promotion. The rest is history.

Want an activity that will keep the kids busy for few moments?

Click here for a Christmas Word Search

Or better yet, try this recipe for some Homemade Holiday Cocoa….

Ingredients:

1 box Nestle Quik

1 jar of powdered Coffeemate

1 box of dry milk

2 cups of powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients together….will make a nice sized batch for you and family to enjoy for days!  Just spoon into cups of hot water and enjoy! Don’t be afraid to keep heaping it in by the spoonfuls, in my opinion the more chocolate the better!

However you may choose to spend this wonderful time of year, the staff here at CFK wishes you and your family the warmest holiday season!

You could be our next Featured Recycler!

Check out our latest Featured Recycler story…HERE!

We’ve told you about Gull Lake Middle School once before, but we thought we’d tell you again because it’s just so great.

So you wanna be our next Featured Recycler? Tell us your story. Email us (contact [at] cfktoday [dot] com), call (800.420.0235) or fill out our online contact form. We want to hear about what YOU’RE doing. Then we’ll spread it around like hot gossip. Because everyone should know about recycling.

Gull Lake Spreads the Green

When we heard about what Kimberly and her team at Gull Lake Middle School did to celebrate their recycling contest, we had to share it with you!

They held a six-week contest in April and May, and raised over $250! They collected ALL KINDS of items: cell phones, ink and laser cartridges, PDAs, video games, DVDs, digital cameras, iPods, and laptops. And how did they celebrate? Look here:

Yep! They used some of the proceeds from their contest to plant an evergreen forest!

This little guy is just one of the 138 evergreen trees that Gull Lake planted this spring. We can’t wait to see how they look all grown up!

Big kudos to Gull Lake for spreading the green–not only by recycling, but by planting trees as well. We love to see things like this! So, if you or your group wants to share your story with us, drop us a line (800.420.0235 or contact@cfktoday.com).

Let’s give Kimberly and everyone at Gull Lake Middle School a GREAT BIG PAT ON THE BACK!

How to Collect and Earn More

They say too much of something can be a bad thing, but here at CFK, we’ve learned that you can never have too much recycling. The good news is that when you recycle more with CFK, you earn more!

How can you make your recycling program go from average to FANTASTIC?
We’ve put together a list of ways you can step it up. Some are very simple, like announcing your collection over the PA system. Others are more long-term, like asking businesses in your area to recycle on your behalf. But they’re all EASY, TRIED AND TRUE ways to increase your collection and your earnings!

THE MIRACLE LIST OF HOW TO DO MORE!

Try a few of them out and let us know how they go. If you have your own ideas of how to punch up your program, make sure to share them with us. We’ll put them here on our blog for everyone to see.

It’s That Time of Year….RECYCLE TREE TIME!

We have told you ALL ABOUT recycling trees for over a year now, but in case you’re just joining us, here’s the lowdown:

1. Clear a spot on a wall, preferably one that everyone in your group sees often.

2. Use butcher paper to create a tree trunk and hang it on the wall.

3. Tell everyone that you’ll give a paper leaf to whoever brings in an item to recycle. It can be a used cell phone, empty ink cartridge, used laptop, DVD movie, GPS device, digital camera, video game, calculator, or iPod.

4. Recyclers can decorate or write their name on their leaf and put it on the trunk.

5. The more you recycle, the bigger your tree gets!

Click here for a link to a template. Click here for examples of other groups’ recycling trees.

Digital Wish and Pepsi Refresh: working together to give $250,000 to schools!

Digital Wish (the group that partners with us on the Recycle Forward campaign) needs your votes to help over 500 classrooms with technology grants!

THE LOW DOWN:

Digital Wish is participating in the Pepsi Refresh Project. If they generate the most votes in the month of September and finish as one of the top two $250,000 awardees (www.refresheverything.com/digitalwish), Digital Wish will use the proceeds to award over 500 classrooms with technology grants. The three teachers who garner the most votes throughout the month of September will receive $10,000 grants for their classrooms.  The four teachers with the next highest amount of votes will receive $5,000 grants.  After that, 100 teachers will receive $500 grants, and 400 more educators will receive $250. These grants can be used to purchase new technology from Digital Wish’s extensive online catalog.

HOW TO HELP:

Visit the Digital Wish homepage at www.digitalwish.org to find your favorite teacher and help them win a portion of the proceeds by clicking on the Pepsi Refresh button from their profile. One vote is allowed per day, so return often to help Digital Wish and your favorite classroom earn new technology!

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:

According to Digital Wish’s Founder and Executive Director Heather Chirtea, “Every classroom teacher has a huge network of parents and students who care about technology. If even a handful of people from those networks vote, Digital Wish will be able to enhance learning for thousands of students nationwide. These grants will spark a wave of technological upgrades and inspire teachers to refresh their curriculum.”

Digital Wish hopes back-to-school excitement will fuel their campaign with fresh energy and propel them to victory. “We couldn’t have asked for a better time to be campaigning for this project than right now,” said Chirtea. “This could start the school year off right for many classrooms that suffer from a shortfall of new technology.”

At CFK, we like to hear about groups who are doing good things for education. We’re proud to work with Digital Wish on Recycle Forward, and we’re proud of their efforts with the Pepsi Refresh Project. Click here to turn recyclable electronics into new technology for your classroom.

That old bag…

We’ve talked about pledge bags before. Don’t believe us? See for yourself here and here.

Anyway, whether you remember or not, we’re gonna do it again!

Pledge bags are cute little 6 X 9 inch bags that encourage recycling at your school. You pass them out and tell everyone to bring the bag back with at least one item in it.

What do you put in the pledge bags? Thanks for asking.  An inkjet cartridge, a cell phone, a digital camera, an ipod, or tape the bag to a laptop or xbox console and bring it in. Make sure that the student and parent sign the back of the pledge bag…this means they pledge to recycle all year long!

What do you do with the bags once they’re returned? Keep them. Hang on to them. We don’t need them. Put all the bags in a central location and use them to give out prizes. Tell everyone that you’ll hold a drawing every week, every month, or whenever you want. Draw one of the bags, and give that lucky recycler a prize of your choice. In the past, people have given away extra recess time, lunch with the principal, stickers, or one of our “Caught You Recycling” cards.

How do I get the word out that we’re using the bags? We’ve typed up an email that you can send home to parents or other supporters. Click here to get it. Other than that, spread the word the same way you would about the rest of your recycling program: over the intercom at school, with fliers, at sporting events or club meetings, or on community events calendars in your local area.

Good luck! Click here to get pledge bags, or here to ask us more questions about it.

Recycling Lesson Plans

As the school year is beginning, there’s lots of resources you can use to integrate recycling into your lesson plans. Check out the following links:

The Teacher’s Guide
A to Z Teacher Stuff
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
Scholastic
Discovery Education
KidZone
Education World

CFK has also put together a recycling lesson of our own. Check out our Save the Earth Scavenger Hunt on the Ways to Grow page on our website. Incorporate recycling into your math or science lesson and earn money for your school all at the same time.

Click here to sign up or contact our staff.

Set Up a Back to School Table!

The beginning of the school year is often an overwhelming time…so many papers to send home, so many projects to start.

Luckily, CFK is here to make your Back to School time easier.

Going Back to School with CFK is as easy as 1–2–3!

1. Gather up the following: CFK fliers, item poster, collection box, and examples of our recyclable items, if you have them.

2. Find a table. ANY kind of table. A card table, a desk, a cafeteria table, any place that you can set up.

3. Put it all together. It can be at Back to School night, a sporting event, in your school’s main lobby, anywhere that lots of people are going to see it. Tell everyone about your recycling program, and make sure they know what to bring in and where to bring it.

It’s that easy!
Click here for examples and more Back to School table ideas.
Click here for our “Just Getting Started” page with more ideas on how to get your program off the ground.