Speaking of environmental education, turns out a lot of schoolkids are already learning about recycling - by doing it in their classrooms.

TerraCycle, a New Jersey company that converts waste into eco-friendly products, reports that it has recruited 46,000 "Drink Pouch Brigades" across the US, nearly 30,000 of them schools (60 in Baltimore), to divert the non-recyclable plastic juice containers from landfills and incinerators.

Here's how it works: Youngsters collect their empty uice pouches, rather than toss them in the trash. The company pays participating schools and nonprofits 2 cents for each one and "upcycles" them into backpacks, homework folders, lunchboxes and pencil cases - which it markets, naturally enough, to schoolkids and their parents.

So far, TerraCycle says, it's paid out $1.3 million in all for 64 million pouches, funds that schools badly need these days to cover supplies and activities taxpayers don't pay for. 

It takes a lot of pouches to raise much money, though. Kids at one school, McCormick Elementary, in Rosedale (seen above), rounded up 3,200 pouches last year, a company spokesman informed me - which by my calculation earned them a grand total of $64.  That won't buy all that much. But then, what price do you put on the educational benefit of learning that "waste" still has value?

To learn more, go here.

(Photo courtesy TerraCycle)