School Lunches Are Gold Mines for Recycling, Reusing and Replenishing

School Lunches Are Gold Mines for Recycling, Reusing and Replenishing

Brandpoint, St. Joseph News-Press

(BPT) - From an early age, children can roll up their sleeves and get involved in helping reduce the amount of trash they produce by participating in recycling programs. Across the country, children will celebrate Earth Day April 22 with science fairs and environmental educational seminars about the importance of recycling. When children start recycling early in life, they're more likely to continue that behavior as they get older - and pass the practice on to their own kids.

Recycling is a growing program in households, cities and schools across the country. In fact, Americans recycled 82 million tons of materials in 2009 - the most recent year for reported data, and that number keeps increasing, according to Keep America Beautiful.

School programs are a great way to not only promote recycling in younger generations, but also to create a fundraiser for the schools. This year, as Earth Day approaches April 22, schools can organize aluminum can drives and participate in cash-for-schools programs based on recycling lunch packaging. One such program is The Recycle...Reuse...Replenish Earth Day Campaign which encourages school children to recycle their Entenmann's Little Bites Pouches with TerraCycle, resulting in cash back to the school.

In addition, here are some more recycling, reusing and replenishing tips, perfect for school children to promote every lunch day at the school.

Recycle:

* Know your numbers - Teach your children to look for numbers and recycling symbols on plastic containers to know which containers can be reused through a recycling program.

* Sign up for cash back programs - Sign up your school for the TerraCycle program - if it's not already registered - and have your children recycle their Little Bites pouches each lunch hour

Amcu Fights for Right to Strike at Gold Mines

BYLINE: Dineo Faku
THE Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) is expected to argue at the Labour Court in June for its constitutional right to strike at some gold mining houses.
On Friday, Judge Edwin Molahleli postponed his ruling to June 5 after Amcu and employers asked him to allow them adequate time to prepare.
Molahleli also postponed the interim order involving Amcu's compliance with picketing rules at Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) and Impala Platinum (Implats) following an agreement between the companies and Amcu.
Friday's postponements added to uncertainty amid the mining crisis, Sibonginkosi Nyanga, an analyst at Imara SP Reid, said on Friday. "It postpones the finalisation of the crisis. Neither the industry nor the country can afford additional uncertainty that becomes the cause of further downgrades of South Africa's sovereign credit rating."
Amcu, Lonmin, Implats and Amplats will go back to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) next week to re-establish picketing rules. The strike at the three biggest platinum producers will then be in its ninth week.
Amcu, the biggest union in the platinum belt, was absent when the rules were established in a meeting between employers and the CCMA as its top brass were attending a Labour Court hearing on the gold strike. …