Fundraise for your school by recycling with TerraCycle
Art supplies, new uniforms, instruments, and the spring musical—fundraising for your school can be tough, but it doesn’t have to be. You can earn cash for school simply by recycling and fundraising with TerraCycle! When you recycle with us, you earn points for each shipment of hard-to-recycle trash you send in. These points can then be redeemed in the form of a donation to your school! And better yet—you’ll help inspire the next generation of recyclers.
Sign up as a school →
Note: If you are already signed in and would like to create an account for your school, please sign out to create a new account.
How it works
- Sign up as a school. Make sure to choose a school option when filling in your organization type.
- Join as many free recycling programs as you want! Check out some of our most popular programs for schools so you can recycle items like snack packaging, drink pouches, and more.
- Go to our Rewards page, click “Add new charity,” and fill out your school's information to sign up as a charity.
- Set up a recycling station and collect accepted waste.
- Tell staff, students, and parents about how they can help raise money for the school by recycling and ask them to bring in hard-to-recycle trash from home.
- When your collection bins are full, download a free shipping label and ship your trash back to us for recycling.
- Earn points for each eligible shipment you make.
- Redeem those points for cash for your school!
Sign up as a school →
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Questions? We're here for you
Here are some of our most frequently asked questions. Still looking for answers? Reach out to our customer care team, and they’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Create a TerraCycle account here and fill out all required fields with the school’s information. Please sign up as one of the following organization types: public elementary school, private elementary school, public middle school, private middle school, public high school, or private high school.
For each valid shipment you send in through our free recycling programs, you will earn TerraCycle Recycling Rewards points. These points can be redeemed as a donation to your school. Join as many free recycling programs as you’d like to earn more points!
To receive reward points, you must meet the minimum shipment requirements for the program. Each free recycling program has different requirements, which can be found under “Earn Recycling Rewards” on the program’s web page. For example, some programs may require at least one pound of trash to reward you with 100 points.
You can only ship in waste from the accepted waste stream for each program.
No, please send separate shipments using labels that are program-specific. This is required to ensure that waste streams are not contaminated in the sorting process, and your shipments are tracked correctly.
We recommend waiting to ship until you can fill a box with the accepted waste stream, as heavier, less frequent shipments help minimize our carbon footprint.
Please note that some programs have a minimum shipment weight meaning that all shipments for that program must weigh a certain amount in order to earn TerraCycle Recycling Rewards points! We’ve created this system to reinforce our commitment to the planet and reward you for protecting it for future generations.
Our free recycling programs are funded by brands and retailers. They specify which type of waste is accepted by their programs, meaning that some programs only accept one brand’s waste while others accept all brands.
Points can be redeemed for a donation of $0.01 per point. Please note that you must redeem a minimum of 2,500 TerraCycle Recycling Rewards points (or $25).
After you create an account for your school, check for your school in our charity database; if you're new to fundraising with TerraCycle, add your school here. If your request is approved, your school’s information will be in the system when you’re ready to redeem your points.
Search for your school in our database, select your school, and click “Redeem” to donate your reward points.
We have two payment periods per year. If you redeem by the end of April, your school will be paid via check in June. If you redeem by the end of October, your school will be paid in January.
There is no limit to how much you can earn! You can join as many programs and recycle as much hard-to-recycle trash as you want, all for free. We do ask that you adhere to the guidelines of each program and ship compliantly to ensure that we can keep providing our solutions to as many people and schools as possible.
Search for your school in our database, select your school, and click “Redeem” to donate your reward points.
Sign up as a school →
Note: If you are already signed in and would like to create an account for your school, please sign out to create a new account.