Teaneck Teacher Helps Cut Waste At Local Yeshiva

Drink pouches, candy wrappers, and packaging for crackers, chips and other snacks—until last year, they all ended up in the dumpster at Yeshivat Noam in Paramus.

Now, they are being recycled, thanks to the efforts of teacher Alysa Cohen and Trenton-based company Terracycle.

This is the second year that Cohen and Yeshivat Noam will partner with Terracycle to recycle what would normally be waste. The school signed up to collect specific items, which the Terracycle refers to as "brigades."

Cohen, a Teaneck resident, signed up to collect drink pouches, glue sticks, cookie wrappers, candy wrappers and chip bags. Throughout the school there are cardboard boxes where students and staff can deposit these items.

For the students, Cohen said, their enthusiasm turned to habit, and the reminder of seeing the boxes everywhere no doubt helped. 

"Participation is really school-wide," Cohen said.

Changing students' habits and making them aware of recycling is the real reward of the program, Cohen said. The school earned a few hundred dollars by participating, not enough to substantially affect the school's budget, Cohen said, but money wasn't the reason she opted to continue the program this year. 

"The benefit of recycling all of these materials is wonderful for the environment," she said. "We are always trying to teach our students to respect their space—starting with their school, extending out to the world around them."

Cohen puts in plenty of work to make the program happen. She has taken responsibility for sorting all of the garbage into separate boxes to ship off to Terracycle, learning early on to seal all the food wrappers in plastic bags after insects invaded her classroom looking for leftovers.

When Terracycle receives the shipments of trash, the company converts them into products that it sells. Founded in 2001, the company collects trash from more than 58,000 locations in the United States.

"I would have a hard time this year not doing it," Cohen said.