If you have kids, you most likely have some [amazon_link id=”B0019665DK” target=”_blank” ]Crayola markers[/amazon_link] in your home.  If you don’t, I can almost guarantee your child’s school has them.

Unfortunately, markers do not last forever.  In fact, one reason I try to avoid them is they dry up long before I think they should. If you can’t rehydrate them, which I try, they get tossed into the garbage. That is a lot of plastic for a little coloring.

Children at Sun Valley School in San Rafael, California have created an online petition asking Crayola to recycle markers.  Unfortunately, the company did not respond enthusiastically.

Dear Crayola,

I love Crayola products and I am a Crayola fan. I join with children’s author, Mr. Land and his “Kids That Care” from Sun Valley School in asking you to establish a convenient take-back program for your plastic markers that kids can easily partake in. Specifically, we want used Crayola plastic markers to be recycled into new Crayola products that can be purchased again and again.

We are looking for your leadership to empower kids to be “green.” Will you take the lead and show the world that you care about keeping plastics out of landfills, incinerators and oceans? When plastics are sent to landfill, or burned for electricity, or washed into oceans, they pollute Earth.

Kids care deeply about protecting earth and they need your help. Crayola, will you please “make your mark” and show us how much you care about our kids and their future?

These kids have already over 61,000 signatures and caught the attention of the mainstream media.  MSNBC reports:

“The idea evolved from conversations with kids about plastic waste and they immediately identified with how many Crayola plastic markers they had thrown away,” Land Wilson, the adult volunteer who facilitates the efforts, told msnbc.com. “Forty students eagerly stepped up and wanted to do something about the problem.”

“We simply want Crayola to establish an easy take back program that kids can partake in  — i.e. prepaid return envelopes with their products or dropoff locations at retail outlets and schools,” he added…

Crayola acknowledged the good intentions but said that, for now at least, there’s no practical way to take back and recycle entire markers.

“We value and encourage children to share their ideas and appreciate the suggestion that the students of Sun Valley brought to our attention,” Crayola spokeswoman Stacy Gabrielle told msnbc.com. “At this time, we do not have the facilities or a process that will enable us to offer a take back program.”

Needless to say, Crayola’s response is lame!!!

Perhaps the company could team up with Terracycle or change their packaging so that what you buy the markers in turns into a return envelope.  Even Elmer’s Glue has teamed up with Terracycle, why not Crayola?

I honestly don’t feel Crayola took the children’s petition seriously and truly looked into alternatives. Welcome to the world of activism kids…Don’t give up!

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