The last few weeks TES students have been collecting drink pouch containers and sending them to New Jersey-based Terracycle. That company uses the empty pouches to “upcycle” them into new products.

“It’s amazing to me how many we get at each lunch period — it’s a very popular item,” George said about drink pouches. “We’re saving a lot of landfill space just by doing something simple like this.”

TES gets 2 cents for each name-brand pouch it receives and 1 cent for each generic pouch.

George said anybody could drop off empty pouches without the straws to the front desk at TES.