Crayola ColorCycle

The Crayola ColorCycle program turns old markers into energy (clean burning fuel). I will be honest with you, I was not expecting to be blogging about ColorCycle today because I have been so carefully choosing projects and deciding what projects I will be a part of. There are always so many wonderful things to be a part of after all.
Crayola is a a company that has been around for ages. When I first read about their new ColorCycle program earlier this fall, I immediately thought that the graphics they created were wonderfully, classic Crayola.
One of my art colleagues decided to do the program and after seeing the nice resource page on the Crayola site, it was so easy to join in to help the environment.
So, here is my bin set up for old markers to be donated. Hopefully, my students will find a bunch to bring in during the course of the school year. A few at a time, here and there. Once filled, I will ship them off to Crayola using a pre-printed label that I can print from their site. Easy-peasy!

Crayola ColorCycle Process

The process can convert plastic markers into usable fuel.  Here’s how it works:

Plastic markers are collected by schools and sent to the energy conversion site. At the facility, the markers are collected in a large container, where the plastic is melted. The hot liquid plastic then travels into a reactor, where the temperature is even higher. The reactor breaks the long molecular chains into shorter ones as a result of the intense heat. The shorter molecules become a gas or vapor and float out of the reactor into a cold chamber. The vapor is cooled to room temperature and turns into a clean-burning liquid fuel. The fuel can then be used to heat a home, run a car or cook food.