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Think yellow

Nearly 45,000 pounds of outdated telephone directories were recycled in the sixth annual Think Yellow, Go Green program, a monthlong initiative of the Berry Co., publisher of the Hawaiian Telcom Yellow Pages, along with schools on the islands of Hawaii, Kauai, Maui and Molokai. King Kaumualii Elementary School collected the most outdated telephone directories, diverting 2,420 pounds of books from landfill.

Ray Carulli, branch manager of Barry’s Hawaii division, says, “This program has not only helped us keep recyclable materials out of landfills over the past six years but our school partners [also] have said it teaches the students about the difference they can make in preserving the local environment."

After the close of the contest, the recycled telephone directories are shipped to Oahu for recycling. Hawaiian Telcom Yellow Pages are 100 percent recyclable, and the materials are converted into an array of new products.

For more information, visit www.thinkyellowgogreen.com.

Second lives

In an effort to keep plastic bottles out of landfill, Coca-Cola Co. has introduced 16 different bottle cap replacements that transform empty soda bottles into everyday items. The polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles can be transformed into a water gun, bubble maker, pencil sharpener, whistle, paint brush, rattle and other useful objects by screwing on one of the 16 caps.

Coca-Cola has only released 40,000 of the innovative caps in Vietnam in an effort to encourage consumers there to recycle. The company has not announced if it plans to sell or release the caps elsewhere.
 

For more information about the company’s innovation, visit www.coca-colacompany.com/videos.

Super sorter

A new online video game that educates players on the different ways items—from metal cans to plastic bottles—can be sorted and recycled in material recovery facilities (MRFs), describes one type of sorting screen as being “like large teeth with gaps between them.”

Super Sorter is an online video game created for the “I Want to be Recycled” campaign, an effort launched by Keep America Beautiful (KAB), Stamford, Connecticut, along with the New York-based Ad Council, to motivate Americans to recycle more materials every day.

Gamers are presented with an interactive conveyor belt and a specified amount of “cash,” which goes up in value as players successfully sort out the recyclable materials in the queue as they progress down the conveyor belt. As materials are recycled, the Super Sorter player’s cash value increases, allowing the player to purchase more sorters, from disc and gravity to magnetic and optical, thus advancing him or her to the next level, where more sorter types and materials are introduced. The player’s cash value decreases for each recyclable that ends up in landfill. KAB says the goal of the game is to engage a new generation of recyclers.

Play Super Sorter at www.iwanttoberecycled.org/game.

Do you have a unique recycling-focused story? Please send a press release to Megan Workman at mworkman@gie.net.