CMU students can recycle Halloween candy wrappers through "Trick or Trash" program
For Halloween this year, Central Michigan University students can recycle their candy wrappers into pet toys.
The “Trick or Trash” initiative was announced by Central Sustainability (CS) to prevent candy wrappers from being wasted by making pet toys out of them.
CS partnered with Rubicon and RecycleMania Inc. to bring the program at CMU. This is the first time CMU has done a program like this.
Rubicon started the initiative in 2019 to reduce Halloween waste. Participants can order boxes to recycle candy wrappers.
“More than 600 million pounds of candy are purchased each year for Halloween,” the Rubicon website reads. The candy wrappers are trash and they could have not been recycled before.
CS got 10 Rubicon boxes for recycling the candy wrappers for each resident hall and some in the classroom buildings.
Students can find brightly colored boxes with pumpkin images on them throughout campus and throw away candy wrappers in them. The boxes will be collected later to be sent back to Rubicon.
Rubicon recycles wrappers and makes pet toys out of the material. According to their website, the toys are donated to animal shelters.
CS’s sustainability coordinator, Ava Brewer, said that it is an “awesome program” that allows people to recycle candy wrappers that would usually just go to waste. Brewer said it is very relevant as candy time, Halloween, is coming.
The program will last throughout November.
