Crayola: Burning Plastic Markers is NOT Recycling!

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In 2012, a group of ele­men­tary school stu­dents start­ed a Cray­ola: Make Your Mark! peti­tion call­ing for Cray­ola to “make sure these mark­ers don’t end up in our land­fills, incin­er­a­tors and oceans.”  The peti­tion gath­ered over 90,000 peti­tion sign­ers.  In 2013, Cray­ola launched their Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram, but won’t admit that the stu­dent cam­paign was the cat­a­lyst for this program.

Cray­ola ini­tial­ly sent these mark­ers to JBI’s “plas­tics to oil” facil­i­ty in Nia­gara, New York.  This exper­i­men­tal oper­a­tion closed down in Decem­ber 2013 and remains idle, with the com­pa­ny claim­ing finan­cial rea­sons (as have sim­i­lar com­pa­nies try­ing this failed plas­tics pyrol­y­sis technology).

Cray­ola admits that its whole mark­ers are not recy­clable.  They refuse to dis­close which com­pa­nies or facil­i­ties are pro­cess­ing the mark­ers col­lect­ed in their “Col­or­Cy­cle” pro­gram, but claim that their “Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram repur­pos­es the entire mark­er and turns it into reusable alter­na­tives such as oil, elec­tric­i­ty and wax.”

Burn­ing is NOT recycling!

Cray­ola admits that their ini­tial plas­tics-to-oil scheme did­n’t work out, yet is still pur­su­ing pol­lut­ing and exper­i­men­tal incin­er­a­tion and pyrol­y­sis schemes in com­mu­ni­ties they refuse to name.

Plas­tics-to-oil tech­nol­o­gy (pyrol­y­sis) is very exper­i­men­tal, with var­i­ous small demon­stra­tion facil­i­ties usu­al­ly fail­ing for tech­ni­cal and/or eco­nom­ic rea­sons, as JBI did.  Pyrol­y­sis is sim­i­lar to incin­er­a­tion in that it’s expen­sive and pol­lut­ing, destroy­ing mate­ri­als, releas­ing tox­ins and waste prod­ucts, and cre­at­ing new tox­ic chem­i­cals in the process.

Cray­ola also indi­cates that they’re send­ing “Col­or­Cy­cled” mark­ers to be burned in trash incin­er­a­tors.  They state that they’re using them to “gen­er­ate elec­tric­i­ty in the Unit­ed States” and refer to “Ener­gy from Waste plants,” pre­tend­ing that they “are a clean, reli­able, and renew­able source of ener­gy that pro­duces elec­tric­i­ty with lit­tle envi­ron­men­tal impact.”  This can only describe trash incin­er­a­tors, most of which have rebrand­ed them­selves as “waste to ener­gy” or “ener­gy from waste” facilities.

In fact, trash incin­er­a­tors are the most expen­sive and pol­lut­ing way to man­age waste or to make ener­gy — dirt­i­er than coal pow­er plants, and dirt­i­er than land­fills.  They turn waste into tox­ic ash (which goes to land­fills, any­way) and tox­ic air pol­lu­tion.  They release pol­lu­tants like nitro­gen oxides, lead, mer­cury, and diox­in that con­tribute to ADHD, asth­ma, birth defects, can­cer, learn­ing dis­abil­i­ties, reduced IQ, vio­lent behav­ior and many oth­er health prob­lems.  This is not what a com­pa­ny should be doing if they “believe every child should have a healthy plan­et for their cre­ative todays and tomor­rows” as they claim.

In fact, the ele­men­tary school stu­dents who ini­tial­ly demand­ed mark­er recy­cling from Cray­ola specif­i­cal­ly called for “Cray­ola to make sure these mark­ers don’t end up in our land­fills, incin­er­a­tors and oceans.”

It’s time for Cray­ola to come clean.  Please sign this peti­tion demand­ing that Crayola:

• be trans­par­ent about the spe­cif­ic facil­i­ties and process­es where their Col­or­Cy­cled mark­ers are going,
• imme­di­ate­ly stop sup­port­ing trash incin­er­a­tors and incin­er­a­tor-like pyrol­y­sis schemes,
• redesign their mark­ers so that they’re refill­able and 100% recy­clable, and
• actu­al­ly recy­cle the mark­ers they collect.

Please email or call Mike at 215–436-9511 with any questions.

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We called Cray­ola on August 9, 2017 to clar­i­fy what hap­pens to the Col­or­Cy­cled mark­ers. They prompt­ly sent this response (answer­ing even more ques­tions than we’d asked):

Thank you for reach­ing out to us. Here are the addi­tion­al ques­tions and answers with regard to our Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram that we are able to share with you. Thank you again for your interest.

Q1. What is Cray­ola ColorCycle?

A. Cray­ola is all about inno­v­a­tive solu­tions ~ in par­tic­u­lar for kids and the envi­ron­ment.  Col­or­Cy­cle is our lat­est sus­tain­abil­i­ty ini­tia­tive designed to repur­pose used Cray­ola mark­ers in an envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly way.

Q2. Is Crayola’s Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram sim­i­lar to oth­ers in the cray­on and mark­er industry?

A. There are sev­er­al oth­er pro­grams that we are aware of.  Our pro­gram, Col­or­Cy­cle, will accept all brands of plas­tic mark­ers, not just Cray­ola mark­ers. Cray­ola Col­or­Cy­cle can poten­tial­ly elim­i­nate plac­ing hun­dreds of tons of mark­ers into land­fills, and instead, repur­pose the mark­ers into alter­na­tive uses.

Q3. How can I find out more about Col­or­Cy­cle and oth­er Cray­ola envi­ron­men­tal ini­tia­tives?   A. For more infor­ma­tion about the Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram, vis­it www.crayola.com/colorcycle.   To find out about all of Crayola’s oth­er envi­ron­men­tal ini­tia­tives includ­ing our 30-acre solar farm, go to www.crayola.com/about-us/green.  [Note: their link is bad, but this one works: http://www.crayola.com/about-us/company/green-initiatives.aspx]

Q4. Why did it take so long to insti­tute mark­er program?

A. Cray­ola has been research­ing alter­na­tive mark­er solu­tions for years, but because of the com­plex­i­ty of the mark­er struc­ture and var­i­ous plas­tics types and parts, it has tak­en some time.  Cray­ola is proud to now pro­vide a pro­gram where mark­ers can be repur­posed for a vari­ety of uses.

Q5. Is Cray­ola still using the plas­tic-to-ener­gy process to turn mark­ers into clean fuel?

A. Yes. Cray­ola launched the Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram in 2013 using the plas­tic-to-ener­gy process to pro­duce clean fuel since it was the most effi­cient and ben­e­fi­cial way to reuse the entire mark­er and keep plas­tic out of land­fills. As we con­tin­ue to explore inno­v­a­tive solu­tions and under­stand emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies in this area, there are also oth­er oppor­tu­ni­ties to broad­en the pro­gram and how our mark­ers could be repurposed.

Q6. If the out­put from Col­or­Cy­cle isn’t clean fuel, what is it?

A. Cur­rent­ly, Cray­ola is work­ing with sev­er­al con­ver­sion part­ners to make trans­porta­tion fuels and gen­er­ate elec­tric­i­ty in the Unit­ed States and a wax com­pound for asphalt in Canada.

Q7. Are you still using JBI?

A. No, Cray­ola launched the pro­gram in 2013 with JBI, Inc. because at the time they appeared to have had the most effi­cient tech­nolo­gies to repur­pose Crayola’s entire mark­er. As expect­ed, Cray­ola learned a lot in the first year and con­tin­ues to eval­u­ate and evolve emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies in this area and broad­en the Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram and how our mark­ers are repurposed.

Q8. Who are Crayola’s new part­ners for the Col­or­Cy­cle program?

Today, we are work­ing with a vari­ety of con­ver­sion enti­ties that have inno­v­a­tive and emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies for repur­pos­ing mark­ers.  We expect to con­tin­u­al­ly evolve the Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram and bring in new part­ners where appro­pri­ate.  Beyond that, we do not share our sup­pli­er and ven­dor partners.

Q9. What is the end out­put of Cray­ola markers?

A. The com­pa­nies we are work­ing with in the Unit­ed States can con­vert the plas­tic mark­ers into usable ener­gy, specif­i­cal­ly elec­tric­i­ty and trans­porta­tion fuels.

Q10. Is the process of repur­pos­ing mark­ers into elec­tric­i­ty envi­ron­men­tal­ly friendly?

A.  Accord­ing to the US Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency, Ener­gy from Waste plants are a clean, reli­able, and renew­able source of ener­gy that pro­duces elec­tric­i­ty with lit­tle envi­ron­men­tal impact.

Q9. Is your car­bon foot­print real­ly being reduced as a result of the Col­or­Cy­cle program?

A. Cray­ola always looks to reduce its car­bon foot­print. For exam­ple, we track CO2e for all of our North Amer­i­can oper­a­tions, set goals to improve, track our progress, and make the infor­ma­tion pub­lic on www.crayola.com.

Q11. Does Cray­ola receive any mon­ey for par­tic­i­pat­ing in this process?

A. No, Cray­ola does not receive mon­ey from par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Col­or­Cy­cle program.

Q12. Who is eli­gi­ble to par­tic­i­pate in the Col­or­Cy­cle program?

A. Any school, kinder­garten through 12th grade in the con­tigu­ous 48 Unit­ed States and some areas in Cana­da can par­tic­i­pate.  Unfor­tu­nate­ly, day­care cen­ters and preschools are not includ­ed at this time.

Q12A.  Can a school on a Unit­ed States Army Base par­tic­i­pate? We have a reg­u­lar US mail­ing address and can ship to and from the US using the US Postal Sys­tem. We appear to be in the US as it relates to mail.

A. No.  Ship­ping mark­ers over­seas by air freight to our repur­pos­ing facil­i­ty in the Unit­ed States is not envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly.  We rec­om­mend you explore a local recy­cling cen­ter in your area.

Q13. Why are not all areas of Cana­da eligible?

A. Cray­ola con­tin­ues to test and learn in Cana­da to under­stand how to best opti­mize and repur­pose the mark­ers in its local com­mu­ni­ties. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, there are geo­graph­ic areas that are not includ­ed. Please check www.crayola.com/colorcycle to see if your postal code is includ­ed in our Cana­di­an program.

Q14. Why are con­sumers, day­care cen­ters and preschools not eli­gi­ble to participate?

A. We are hop­ing to roll out the pro­gram to include home schools, day cares and preschools in the future. In the mean­time, please feel free to con­tact your local school and if they are already par­tic­i­pat­ing, feel free to drop off your used mark­ers there. If your local school is not par­tic­i­pat­ing, encour­age them to do so by vis­it­ing www.crayola.com/colorcycle.

Q15. How do I get a pro­gram start­ed at my school?

A. It is easy to do!  Just log on to www.crayola.com/colorcycle and get start­ed today. An adult must be the school con­tact. In just a few easy steps, you can begin to col­lect mark­ers and print out a label for ship­ping. This pro­gram is free to the schools. Con­tact your prin­ci­pal or PTO to get them signed up and begin col­lect­ing markers.

Q16. Is there a con­test or any rewards for par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Col­or­Cy­cle program?

A. Our main focus is to pro­vide a way for our stu­dents to keep plas­tics out of land­fills while also engag­ing stu­dents in learn­ing about envi­ron­men­tal solu­tions in an inno­v­a­tive and rel­e­vant way.

Q17. How do I pack­age the mark­ers to ship them?

A. Any stur­dy card­board box with min­i­mal out­er mark­ings will work. The more mak­ers you ship, the more effi­cient this pro­gram will be. We sug­gest a min­i­mum of 100 mark­ers and a max­i­mum of up to 40 pounds. Only plas­tic mark­ers will be accept­ed and it is impor­tant for the suc­cess of the process that no oth­er mate­ri­als are shipped in the boxes.

Q18. Where do I get a mail­ing label for the box?

A. Go to www.crayola.com/colorcycle to print a Cray­ola pre-paid FedEx ship­ping label for deliv­ery of the col­lect­ed mark­ers to the facil­i­ty for recy­cling. NOTE:  Eric Zeb­ley has con­firmed that FedEx does have a max­i­mum print lim­it on ship­ping labels to lessen pack­age han­dling. To make this pro­gram as effi­cient as pos­si­ble we sug­gest a min­i­mum of 100 mark­ers and a max­i­mum of up to 40 pounds in each box.

Q19. Are crayons or any of your oth­er prod­ucts includ­ed in the Col­or­Cy­cle program?

A. We are always look­ing for new tech­nolo­gies to reuse Cray­ola prod­ucts.  At this time, we do not have a pro­gram for Cray­ola crayons. How­ev­er, con­sumers can use the new Cray­ola Cray­on Fac­to­ry to melt their used crayons into new ones with unique shapes and colors.

Q20. Was the Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram cre­at­ed in response to the peti­tion from Change.org?

A. For years, con­sumers have asked us how to reuse their mark­ers. We have con­tin­u­al­ly looked for ways to sup­port this process, but until last year, the appro­pri­ate tech­nol­o­gy was not avail­able. We con­tin­ue to test and learn with this ini­tia­tive and expect the pro­gram to evolve and grow over time. We encour­age chil­dren to con­tin­u­al­ly share their ideas, and we appre­ci­ate the sug­ges­tions from schools and oth­ers who have request­ed this over the years.

Q21. What else does Cray­ola do to be envi­ron­men­tal­ly friendly?

A. Cray­ola has many green ini­tia­tives in place, includ­ing a solar farm locat­ed at its world head­quar­ters in Eas­t­on, Pa., that pro­vides enough pow­er to make one bil­lion crayons and a half a mil­lion mark­ers each year. For more infor­ma­tion on our envi­ron­men­tal ini­tia­tives, vis­it http://www.crayola.com/about-us/green-initiatives.aspx.  [Note: their link is bad, but this one works: http://www.crayola.com/about-us/company/green-initiatives.aspx]

Q22. We reside in Cana­da and would like to pro­mote your Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram. Are there mar­ket­ing mate­ri­als in French or a tem­plate we can use to trans­late the par­ent let­ter or poster into French?

A. Thank you for your inter­est in par­tic­i­pat­ing in our Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram.  At this time, we do not have mar­ket­ing mate­ri­als avail­able in French, but will record this sug­ges­tion with oth­ers like it.  We encour­age con­sumers to con­tin­u­al­ly share their ideas, and we appre­ci­ate your feedback.

RECYCLING SPECIFIC

Q1. Is Cray­ola going to imple­ment a tra­di­tion­al recy­cling pro­gram for its markers?

A. Cur­rent­ly, our Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram repur­pos­es the entire mark­er and turns it into reusable alter­na­tives such as oil, elec­tric­i­ty and wax. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.crayola.com/colorcycle.

Q2. Why did Cray­ola opt to imple­ment a plas­tic con­ver­sion pro­gram over a tra­di­tion­al recy­cling program?

For over a decade, Cray­ola has explored inno­v­a­tive solu­tions, includ­ing recy­cling, to divert plas­tic waste from land­fills and under­stand emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies in this area. Due to the com­plex­i­ty of Cray­ola mark­ers, the Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram uses tech­nolo­gies that repur­pose the entire mark­er, regard­less of the dif­fer­ent kinds of plas­tic or how they are assembled.

Com­bined with Crayola’s desire to help edu­cate stu­dents, the Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram is also designed to engage stu­dents in learn­ing about envi­ron­men­tal solu­tions in an inno­v­a­tive and rel­e­vant way.

Q3. Are Cray­ola mark­ers recyclable?

A. The entire mark­er is not recy­clable. The plas­tic mark­er bar­rel is recy­clable, how­ev­er, the tip and reser­voir would need to be removed first. Our mark­er caps can be recy­cled at recy­cling facil­i­ties that accept #5 plas­tic. The Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram uses a process that repur­pos­es the entire mark­er, regard­less of the dif­fer­ent kinds of plas­tic or how they are assembled.

Q4. Will Cray­ola ever con­sid­er a dif­fer­ent type of recy­cling pro­gram for its markers?

A. Cray­ola is always look­ing at inno­v­a­tive solu­tions and explor­ing emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies as it relates to our sus­tain­abil­i­ty efforts.

Q5. Is teach­ing stu­dents to burn fuel envi­ron­men­tal­ly responsible?

A. As you know, North Amer­i­ca uses all dif­fer­ent kinds of fuel to run bus­es, cars, trains and oth­er modes of mass trans­porta­tion. The plas­tic con­ver­sion process is able to repur­pose entire mark­ers into clean ener­gy and oth­er uses such as elec­tric­i­ty and wax, which is still a demand in today’s soci­ety. At some point in the future, fuel may not be nec­es­sary. But today, encour­ag­ing stu­dents to think of inno­v­a­tive ways to divert waste from land­fills and turn them into a usable mate­r­i­al is a key objec­tive for Crayola.

JBI SPECIFIC  

Q1.  Why is Cray­ola end­ing its part­ner­ship with JBI for its Col­or­Cy­cle program?

A. Cray­ola is all about inno­v­a­tive solu­tions ~ in par­tic­u­lar for kids and the envi­ron­ment.  The goal of Col­or­Cy­cle has always been to keep plas­tics out of land­fills while also engag­ing stu­dents in learn­ing about envi­ron­men­tal solu­tions in an inno­v­a­tive and rel­e­vant way.

While JBI Inc. had the appro­pri­ate tech­nol­o­gy to pilot the launch of our Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram, we con­tin­u­al­ly eval­u­ate and look for inno­v­a­tive and emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies in this area to broad­en the Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram and how our mark­ers are repurposed.

Q2. Why is Cray­ola no longer work­ing with JBI? At one point Cray­ola and JBI were proud­ly pro­mot­ing this ini­tia­tive. What happened?

A. Our part­ner­ship with JBI have suc­cess­ful­ly achieved the objec­tives we set out to accom­plish and repur­posed tens of thou­sands of mark­ers over the last year. How­ev­er, our rela­tion­ship with JBI has end­ed.  Cray­ola’s Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram and the col­lec­tion and repur­pos­ing of plas­tic mark­ers con­tin­ues and schools who col­lect them will still have their mark­ers repur­posed for a vari­ety of uses as we work with oth­er partners.

Q3. Is Cray­ola end­ing its part­ner­ship with JBI because of its ques­tion­able reputation?

A. No. JBI Inc. had the appro­pri­ate tech­nol­o­gy to pilot the launch of our Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram, but our inten­tion has always been to con­tin­ue to look for inno­v­a­tive and emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies in this area to broad­en the Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram and how our mark­ers are repurposed.

Q4. There are claims that it takes more fuel to run mark­ers through the plas­tic to ener­gy pro­gram than the result­ing out­put. Is this true and why Cray­ola is chang­ing the Col­or­Cy­cle program?

A. No. JBI’s plas­tic to ener­gy process has been exhaus­tive­ly val­i­dat­ed as com­mer­cial­ly viable and ener­gy effi­cient by For­tune 500® SAIC (Sci­ence Appli­ca­tions Inter­na­tion­al Cor­po­ra­tion) (NYSE:SAI), IsleChem (Occi­den­tal Chemical’s R&D lab pri­va­tized), the New York State DEC, and Con­esto­ga Rovers and associates.

Cray­ola always looks at inno­v­a­tive solu­tions and explores emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies as it relates to our sus­tain­abil­i­ty efforts as a com­pa­ny. This includes eval­u­at­ing alter­na­tive ener­gy enti­ties and out­puts for our markers.

Q5. JBI Inc. was inves­ti­gat­ed by the SEC for fraud. Is this true?

A. We do not com­ment on JBI’s legal mat­ters. Please con­tact JBI directly.

Q6. Is JBI clos­ing its busi­ness? Is that why you’re not work­ing with them?

A. JBI Inc. had the appro­pri­ate tech­nol­o­gy to pilot the launch of our Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram, but our inten­tion has always been to con­tin­ue to look for inno­v­a­tive and emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies in this area to broad­en the Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram and how our mark­ers are repur­posed.   For any ques­tions regard­ing the state of JBI’s busi­ness, please con­tact JBI directly.

Q7. Would Cray­ola work with JBI in the future programs?

A.  JBI was a great launch part­ner for the pilot of our Col­or­Cy­cle pro­gram and we always keep our options open as we look for inno­v­a­tive and emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies for our sus­tain­abil­i­ty initiatives.

Thank you for your inter­est in repur­pos­ing plas­tic mark­ers and cre­at­ing a green­er world for all of us. If we can help fur­ther, please let us know. You are wel­come to call us at 800–272-9652 between 9 AM and 4 PM EST or email by vis­it­ing Crayola.com.

Best wish­es for a col­or­ful day, Mike!

Col­or­ful­ly yours,

Kim­ber­ly Fallon
Con­sumer Affairs Representative
CRAYOLA