Rubicon Technologies, Inc. has launched its annual Trick or Trash campaign, a program designed to help reduce the waste that accumulates every year around Halloween.
Now in its fourth year, Trick or Trash provides easy-to-assemble mail-back recycling boxes to schools, independent businesses, and community organizations, which can be filled with discarded candy wrappers.
It is estimated that each year 600 million pounds of candy are consumed in the United States during the Halloween season, and research from the National Retail Federation shows that in 2021, $3 billion dollars was spent on candy during the holiday, up from $2.4 billion the year before. The materials used for candy packaging are notoriously difficult to recycle with the vast majority ending up in landfills, as well as America’s waterways and oceans. To address this challenge, Rubicon is enlisting the help of teachers, business owners, and community leaders around the U.S. in collecting candy wrappers and inspiring communities to recycle.
Trick or Trash participants deposit their wrappers into custom collection boxes and, once full, simply return the boxes for processing using a prepaid shipping label for carbon-neutral shipping. Rubicon is giving free boxes to every participating school, independent business, and community organization while supplies last.
“Rubicon’s mission is to end waste, and our annual Trick or Trash Halloween recycling campaign is the purest example of this mission in action,” says Nate Morris, chairman and CEO of Rubicon. “From the thousands of Halloween candy wrapper collection boxes that we send out to schools and businesses all across the country, to the campaign’s core educational component that will once again be taught in hundreds of schools and universities, I look forward to Trick or Trash taking a central role in teaching future generations about the importance of protecting our environment.”
This year’s program sees the return of The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) as the official education partner of Trick or Trash. To set educators up for success in teaching about recycling, Rubicon and NWF have created a list of downloadable lesson plans designed for students ages K to 12. These lesson plans introduce students to new terms, phrases, and ideas about the circular economy that can be integrated into any curriculum, and provide fun, interactive, critical thinking exercises with the goal of helping children understand recycling and why it is important to the health of our planet. Lists of recommended reading materials have also been compiled for colleges and universities.
“The National Wildlife Federation seeks to educate and inspire the next generation of environmental and wildlife champions in all that we do,” says Kim Martinez, vice president of education and engagement at the National Wildlife Federation. “This feeds directly into our support of Rubicon’s Trick or Trash campaign for the third year in a row to help show millions of people how small steps, like reducing waste and increasing recycling rates, can help recover wildlife populations and restore natural resources to ensure healthier communities for people and save habitat for imperiled wildlife.”
This year’s program also sees the return of Cox Communications, a longtime Rubicon partner, as the official media sponsor of Trick or Trash. The company has pledged to place hundreds of Trick or Trash boxes in community organizations, YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs, and local schools.
Rubicon is also excited to introduce three new partners to this year’s campaign: Trick or Trash’s official entrepreneurship partner, Junior Achievement of the Bluegrass; the official nonprofit partner, Kentucky FFA (Future Farmers of America) Foundation; and the official Kentucky partner, Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR).
Trick or Trash 2022 follows the campaign’s success in 2021. When first launched in 2019, it reached more than 470 schools in 49 U.S. states. The 2020 campaign reached more than 730 schools and small businesses in all 50 U.S. states. The 2021 campaign reached significantly more individuals, with almost 2,000 collection boxes being sent to more than 1,250 schools, independent businesses, and community organizations.
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As JUNK GODS™ is concerned, any company that embarks on cleaning the environment to make it a safer and cleaner place to live is a plus in their books.
JUNK GODS™ always strives to impact the community by reducing waste for generations to come. That’s why we stand strong behind our commitment to be North America’s GREENEST Junk Removal company.
