The Harker School, San Jose, California – Monday, October 28, marks the official beginning of the Capri Sun Brigade. Harker consumes approximately 400 Capri Sun pouches daily; that’s nearly 8000 pieces of plastic thrown away each month. In an effort to help Harker be “green,” DECA and the Student Council, in a joint effort, formed a coalition and were able to finish the project with trash receptacles all over the school, a schedule for collecting the Capri sun, and a greener school. Now, rather than contribute to the gyre in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, we’re repurposing and helping the environment.  

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The leadership:

• Shannon Hong: Co-Director of Public Relations DECA
• Vincent Lin: Secretary of the ASB
• Michael Zhao: Treasurer DECA, President Class of 2016
• Sarah Bean: President Class of 2015

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The idea of the Capri Sun Brigade was first brought up in the Vaughan advisory at the beginning of freshman year when we were consuming boxes and boxes of Capri Sun. In the back of the box was a description of how to recycle Capri Sun. A year later, beginning of sophomore year, as an officer of DECA, Shannon pitched this idea to the DECA board as a way to help the environment and help DECA. 

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Immediately the board approved and it moved to partner with the student council so that the project could receive as much traction as possible. Together, the student council and DECA worked together and created a leadership team to captain the project. 

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After weeks of creating posters, flyers, and recycling bins, the brigade begins. There are four bins near Manzanita, one in front of Main, one in front of Dobbins, and one at the outside eating area. 

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Students are urged to drop their plastic pouches into these bins rather than the trashcans so that Terracycle can repurpose them into products. The student councilors and DECA officers will be facilitating the recycling.

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“I hope that in addition to helping the environment, the Capri Sun project will also help Harker to achieve it’s goal of becoming a green school. It was a humbling experience working together with people who were equally passionate about making a positive impact in the Harker community.” – Shannon Hong

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“The primary purpose is to make our campus more green in that we’re going to be able to recycle the Capri sun juice boxes. When we asked the kitchen how much Capri Sun we consumed per day, we got on astounding answer – 400. I feel like Capri Sun is a major way through which we can reduce the waste we make as a school.” – Michael Zhao

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“We all had a great time preparing the project because we knew that all of our effort was going to do great things for the environment.” – Sarah Bean

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