Idaho Youth Education Recycling Partnership provides scholarships, awareness

When he was just seven, Bill Jackson started recycling metal, newspapers and rags. Ever since then, he’s never stopped. That routine helped him realize how much recycling can help others.

In 2000, he and his wife, Jackie, lost their son John in a climbing accident. They wanted to honor his legacy and decided that using recycling to raise scholarship money would be a great way to do that.

Twenty years ago, the Jacksons started the John William Jackson Fund, based out of Boise, Idaho, with a mission to "advance academic scholarships, performing arts and outdoor sporting for Idaho youth," according to its website. The scholarships started off small, just $2,700 the first year.

Jackson’s background is in construction, and he has worked for Morrison-Knudson, a Boise, Idaho-based construction company, for many years. Jackson says he decided that his expertise and connections in the construction and recycling industries could help the fund bring in more money to increase its scholarships. 

“I came up with this idea of contacting local general contractors, developers and other companies to donate their metal,” Jackson says, adding that companies such as Pacific Steel & Recycling as well as United Metals Recycling provide bins to collect scrap metal for the fund.

“When we first started out, it was primarily me running around to different jobs with my trailer,” Jackson says. When he realized that wasn’t sustainable, the collection bins came in handy and allowed more materials to be recycled, which in return increased scholarships.

Eventually, those partnerships grew, and in 2007, the Idaho Youth Education Recycling Partnership (iYERP) was created. iYERP features scrap collection bins in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Jackson says it also serves students in those three states. He adds that there’s been discussion about expanding the partnership to Utah and Las Vegas.

Metal is collected from construction jobs, hospitals and other projects and is then sold. All of that money goes directly into each year’s scholarship funds. Collected materials include ferrous and nonferrous metals, electronics and other miscellaneous items. iYERP also has partnered with larger businesses to bring in more funding.

“In the last three years, our projects include three Costco stores, Amazon Delivery & Fulfillment Centers, Starbucks, McDonalds and other national retail businesses,” Jackson says.

In recent years, hundreds of thousands of dollars have gone to help students further their educations in programs from music to athletics and performing arts. In 2017, $135,000 went to students, which was followed by $193,000 in 2018 and $162,000 in 2019.

2020 totals are still being tallied, but just recently, iYERP distributed $2,000 scholarships to 50 students from eight schools around the area.

Since the numbers vary each year, partially because of scrap volumes but also because of metal pricing, Jackson says working hard is the only way to make sure there will be scholarships available for students.

Previous Next

The motivation behind this 20 years ago was to help people, and Jackson says he’s thankful he’s been able to do that. He adds that iYERP's scholarship program has grown over the last two decades.

“We didn’t even plan for it to grow. We thought it would be a one-time deal and move on,” he says.

While Jackson’s main goal is to give back, he says it’s also about educating people on the potential benefits of recycling.

“I think it’s extremely important because what’s lacking is we are such a ‘throwaway’ society,” Jackson says. He adds that showing students what good comes from recycling helps them understand the importance of this mission.

While expanding and bringing in more money for scholarships is the current goal for Jackson, ultimately he says he is just happy to bring awareness to the topic of recycling while still honoring his son’s memory.