Upcycling For a Cause: How Recycling Used Pens Will Help Reduce Plastic Waste AND Help Green Light Reduce Energy Waste

Green Light recently received an email from Rebecca Morgan, a Student Affairs Associate at Tulane University, about a special opportunity for Green Light to get involved in a recycling project that she was planning to start at Tulane in partnership with Staples. Morgan’s plan is to collect used pens in eight residence halls and then ship them off to Terracycle, a company that upcycles used goods in order to eliminate waste.

“Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials, or in this case useless products, into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value,” explains Morgan. “Most people typically dispose of a used writing utensil that no longer works.” By collecting and sending used pens to Terracycle, however, Morgan will help those pens take on a new life (as a trash can or soap dispenser, for example) rather than being sent to a landfill.

In addition, Tulane receives $0.02 per pen it delivers to Terracycle, which can be redeemed twice a year for a charitable donation to a nonprofit. Morgan decided she will donate this money to Green Light New Orleans after hearing about the projects Tulane students do with us every year through Outreach Tulane.

Green Light is all about the creative re-use of waste (see last year’s Christmas Tree project), and this is an ingenious way to reuse one of the most ubiquitous and important yet under-valued and wasted items in our everyday lives. The project officially kicked off on October 29, with the first bins set up in the eight participating residence halls. Morgan anticipates that around 100 pens will be donated by the end of the semester. Thanks to her efforts, those pens will be repurposed and given new value, and Green Light will be the grateful recipient of a donation that will help us reduce another kind of waste: the energy wasted when people use incandescent light bulbs instead of energy efficient CFLs!