Clean Up Peterborough (CUP) is launching their second annual Writing Instrument Challenge, encouraging Peterborough County and beyond to help keep writing instruments out of landfills through the collection initiative.
The free recycling initiative encouraging residents, schools, businesses, municipalities, libraries, workplaces and community groups to collect used pens, markers, highlighters, mechanical pencils and other plastic-based writing instruments throughout the month of June.
The initiative is focused on expanding participation, increasing accessibility and building stronger community involvement across both urban and rural communities.
Last year’s inaugural challenge resulted in more than 26,000 writing instruments collected in the month of June alone through a growing network of schools, businesses, municipalities and community partners.
“We’ve already proven that small everyday items can be diverted from landfill when a community works together,” says Steve Paul, Founder of CUP. “This year is about making participation even easier whether it’s a family, classroom, library, office, church, township or workplace.”
Residents and organizations are encouraged to collect: pens, markers, highlighters, mechanical pencils and other plastic-based writing instruments.
CUP notes that wooden pencils, pencil crayons and crayons are not accepted, and writing instruments containing metal components are accepted and will be separated during processing.
Participants can:
Start their own collection box or station
Join an existing drop-off location
Organize a workplace, classroom or community collection
Follow the live collection map to find participating locations
A Google Map featuring participating collection locations throughout Peterborough County and area will be updated throughout the campaign. Some locations will serve as public drop-off points, while others will participate internally through schools, workplaces, businesses or organizations.
Organizations interested in becoming a public drop-off location or a private internal collection point are asked to contact CUP through social media or email to be added to the live community map.
In 2025, the challenge grew to include more than 90 collection points.
“There’s no cost to participate and no special equipment required. All someone needs is a container or box to start collecting. It’s one of the simplest ways people can take direct environmental action together.”
Collected items are recycled through the TerraCycle Writing Instrument Recycling Program, helping divert hard-to-recycle plastics from landfills and repurpose them into new materials and products.
While the initiative is centred in Peterborough County, CUP also welcomes participation from outside the region. Individuals, schools and organizations across Canada can participate by collecting writing instruments locally and dropping them off at participating Staples locations through the TerraCycle program.
“We’d love to see this inspire participation well beyond our region,” says Paul. “If a classroom in North Bay or Nova Scotia wants to join the movement, that’s an incredible outcome.”
(Written by: Felicia Massey)
