CREDIT: ERIKA FAUST
Fanshawe’s sustainability co-ordinator Amanda Richman placed a TerraCycle box in the bookstore to collected used writing instruments. TerraCycle recycles these items into things like waste bins and park benches, diverting garbage from landfills.

Fanshawe's Bookstore has a lineup recycling receptacles for used batteries, toner cartridges and old electronics. A colourful new box has joined the group, and this one turns used-up office supplies into something amazing.

Partnering with Staples Canada and Newell Rubbermaid, TerraCycle Canada recycles depleted writing instruments into items like park benches, waste bins and more.

Fanshawe's sustainability coordinator Amanda Richman is bringing TerraCycle boxes to campus. She will track waste collected on campus at the Bookstore and through boxes set up in academic offices to see how much is being diverted from landfills.

“People can bring stuff from off campus,” she said. “People with children, going through markers like crazy — they don't put the caps back on and they dry out — they can bring those in.”

The items that are collected will be shipped to the Staples at Dundas Street and Clarke Road, just a few blocks from campus. Staples will ship it all off to TerraCycle, where the items will be disassembled.

“For a mechanical pencil, it'll have a metal spring if it's a [pushtop]. They'll put the spring into the metal pile and recycle that metal, then they'll separate the plastics and the rubber,” explained Richman.

TerraCycle takes items that traditionally wouldn't be recycled and turns them into all sorts of products. Garbage like drink pouches, chip bags, toothbrushes and other items are diverted from landfills and turned into purses, park benches, coolers and much more.

“[Things that are] not conventionally recyclable, they're finding a way to turn it into something,” said Richman. “They make a lot of cool stuff.”

She is very excited about bringing the office supply collection box on to campus, but sees it as a first step.

“Start pushing for us to do more,” Richman encouraged students. “The more support I have, the easier it'll be for me to ... do more.” You can email your ideas to Richman at sustainability@fanshawec.ca.

For more information about TerraCycle, and for a full list of products they create, check out terracycle.ca.

The new Terracycle box accepts the following items of any brand:
- Pens
- Mechanical pencils
- Markers
- Highlighters
- Permanent markers
- Dry erase markers