Did you know that markers can be recycled?
Now, you don’t need to throw away markers that run out of ink, thanks to a mother’s Instagram post that is going viral on social media.
Fact: Crayola has a program called ColorCycle that keeps dead markers out of landfills.
Hali McCloud, a mom from Hawaii, went to social media to share this knowledge of recycling dead markers for everyone to benefit from it. Hali McCloud posted a friendly reminder on Facebook, and since then it has gone viral. The post has been shared over 300,000 times, clearly a very important for all the parents out there.
“15 pounds of dead markers that will not end up in Maui’s landfill or ocean. Did you know that Crayola has a program called ColorCycle? If you collect the dead markers, they’ll send you a free shipping label and you can ship them back to Crayola to be recycled!
My kids found out about this and were so excited to set up boxes at their schools. These markers were collected in just 3 months at my son’s preschool! Imagine what we could divert from landfills during the whole school year at every school!
The only problem is, that right now they don’t pay for free shipping in Hawaii or Alaska, so I’m paying the shipping out of my own pocket but it’s totally worth it to not ever find these markers on our beaches!”
According to Hali McCloud’s post, the markers were collected in just three months. So imagine the number of markers that schools across the world go through in an entire school year. According to The University of Southern Indiana, around 1.6 billion pens wind up in landfills each year.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwK2VTsD7PE/
There is a serious need for recycling programs like the ColorCycle.
Recycle Nation explains that markers are difficult to recycle at home because the process requires removing the felt tip and ink cartridges. But there are companies that are willing to do that work for you. The Prang Power Recycling Program offers collecting and recycling services for Prang-branded art markers, and TerraCycle is great for schools or other entities with large amounts of markers ready to be recycled. They send packages to fill up with your dried-up markers and even host recycling events so that people can bring their recyclables from home.
Share this with someone and then go look for your old dried-up markers!
