In celebration of Earth Day, Graphic Packaging hosted Trees Into Cartons, Cartons Into Trees (TICCIT… pronounced “ticket”) at Northeastern Elementary on April 27 to teach students about the importance of recycling paper and paperboard packaging.
Volunteers from Graphic Packaging walked students through a hands-on presentation of how paper is made into cartons, which can then be recycled many times. After the presentation, students and volunteers rolled up their sleeves and planted around 110 tree saplings in paperboard cartons to take with them and plant at home!
Planting the sapling in the paperboard carton creates a natural water funnel and protection. Eventually, as the tree grows, the paperboard carton breaks down – which is where “trees into cartons, cartons into trees” comes from. We are excited to see the students’ saplings sprout and grow in the Kalamazoo community!
We were honored to bring the TICCIT program to students in celebration of Earth Week, especially given our focus on recycling and the impact we make on reducing our community’s trash stream. The recycled paperboard manufactured at our Kalamazoo mill will reduce greenhouse gases by 3.2 million tons annually, as the material will be made into something new and not placed in a landfill.
TICCIT is an educational outreach program created by the Paperboard Packaging Council, and Graphic Packaging has been hosting TICCIT in schools across the globe since 2008. We are proud to have worked with over 120,000 students on this initiative to date.