Saturday, January 24, 2009
PASSING THE RAINBOW
When our members observed that unusable broken crayons pieces were a waste product from decorating reusable shopping bags through Pollution Solutions, they considered ways to divert these crayon pieces from the waste stream. They found the Crayons Project, a program of AFRICA Seed. They melt the crayon pieces together in repurposed cafeteria milk cartons using solar cookers. When the melted crayon mixture cools, new crayons have been formed, which the group then ships in repurposed shoe boxes to schoolchildren in Africa. In 2009, group members brought this activity to the Local to Global Justice Teach-In at Arizona State University and Earth Day events at Phoenix Country Day School and the Arizona National Guard. Our youth taught students at these events about the principles of solar cooking and how items can be diverted from the waste stream with a little thought and creativity. Students were involved prior to the events in the collection of broken crayon pieces and used cafeteria milk cartons. We also included a letter with each box of crayons sent to African schoolchildren explaining how we created these new crayons out of old crayons.
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