Rotorua locals, Otonga Rd Primary School needs your help to make the world a better place and be in with the chance to win prizes for pupils.
Classmates are diverting non-recyclable yoghurt pouches from the landfill on behalf of the Rotorua community as part of a recycling programme operated by Fonterra.
As part of the programme, the school has the chance to win a pack of lunch bags and pencil cases made from upcycled yoghurt pouches, in a national recycling competition called the Fonterra Snap, Recycle and Win competition.
As well as yoghurt pouches, pupils are also collecting oral care waste and plastic food storage waste to recycle in two other recycling programmes operated by Colgate and Glad.
Once the yoghurt pouch, oral care and plastic food storage waste is collected, it is packed and sent to TerraCycle, which shreds, cleans and melts it all down into raw materials to create garden beds, park benches and playgrounds.
For each kilogram of yoghurt pouch waste sent to TerraCycle, Otonga Rd Primary School earns $1 as a donation, plus $0.02 per unit of oral care waste and plastic food storage waste.
Charity Bollard, who runs the programmes at the school, described the recycling programmes as a double-win for the school.
"By collecting yoghurt pouches, oral care waste and plastic food storage waste we are not only keeping them out of landfill, but were also earning donations for the school.
"We now have several recycling bins for the waste and have a group of children who collect, sort and package it ready to send to TerraCycle."
Locals can help Otonga Rd Primary School win the upcycled prizes by dropping all brands of used yoghurt pouches to the preschool for recycling, while those interested in recycling their oral care waste, yoghurt pouches or plastic food storage waste are encouraged to visit www.terracycle.co.nz.