TICCIT – Experiencing Circular Economy!

TICCIT (Trees Into Cartons, Cartons Into Trees) is Pro Carton’s schools’ education programme aimed mainly at children aged between 8-11 years.  TICCIT involves teaching school children about trees, paper, cartons and recycling.  The children are assisted with planting a tree sapling inside a carton, which they then plant in the ground. TICCIT teaches children about the circular economy without them even knowing it!  It’s a lot of fun that helps to educate the next generation about the benefits of cartons and the importance of recycling.  The TICCIT programme may take just a couple of hours to run in school, but the educational impact derived from planting a sapling and seeing it grow into a tree will last a lifetime and through several generations!

How can TICCIT benefit my business? Why should companies get involved with the TICCIT programme? Here are just some of the reasons:

• It teaches children about the importance of recycling, the sustainability of paper-based packaging and being environmentally-friendly.
• It promotes the benefits of cartons and cartonboard and supports our industry’s reputation.
• It strengthens a company’s standing and reputation in the local community and builds community by connecting children, families, teachers and businesses.
• The children love it, and they remember it, as it is different from their normal routine … and they get to plant a real baby tree!
• You make a difference by planting more trees – the natural carbon capture and storage!
• The programme is low cost and can increase employee engagement – everyone enjoys it!
• TICCIT offers PR opportunities (the local media love this sort of thing – make sure to take some photos)

Feedback from companies who have taken part in TICCIT has been very positive. The staff that have made the presentations have found it very rewarding and straightforward to organise and run.  TICCIT is an incredibly worthwhile programme for everyone in the carton industry as it enables us to highlight our environmental credentials and to introduce some knowledge, skills and values to children that can be taken into their future lives. TICCIT has caught the imagination of many people involved in our industry.

How does TICCIT work?

TICCIT is not a self-learning programme. The success of TICCIT relies on companies getting involved and partnering with local schools.  Pro Carton are helping to facilitate participation by producing FREE TICCIT resources available in eight languages. All the information you need is on the Pro Carton website. But where to start?

The first step we recommend is to appoint a TICCIT Ambassador, someone who can co-ordinate the activity within the business. Their job is to encourage employees to contact their local schools and arrange to go into the school and give a talk and presentation about TICCIT.  Once it’s been agreed with the school to do the talk the Ambassador will need to order the appropriate number of saplings so that every child gets one to take home (in a carton, of course).

All the support materials, including a presentation and speaker notes, are available on the Pro Carton website (in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish and Turkish). A full explanation of how to kick off your TICCIT campaign is included in the TICCIT Programme Guide with the other TICCIT Resources.  You can also view an extensive gallery of images from those businesses who have already run the TICCIT programme in schools – see TICCIT In Action.

The next few months is the ideal planning time as planting is best in the Autumn school term, so if you’re not currently involved with TICCIT, please take a moment to find out more and to get involved.  For further information on TICCIT, please visit the Pro Carton website or contact Katie Ryan.  Do let us know when you visit a school, and how you get on, and please send us some photos!