Students at Hackberry Hill Elementary in Arvada collected 23 pounds of markers to be recycled.

“This is an amazing thing for us as an elementary school to be able to do,” said Hackberry Hill Elementary Principal Don Klene. “Think about how much a marker weighs. Hardly anything right? But when you collect them all from this school — all 426 of us — that's a lot of markers.”

The recycling effort was spearheaded by a third-grade student, Madhvi Chittoor , and her mom, Lalitha Chittoor. Students Tishya Bhat, Mila Stevanovic and Stasha Stevanovic also helped coordinate the marker recycling drive through Crayola ColorCycle.

ColorCycle is a program for students in K-12 schools across the continental United States and parts of Canada can collect and repurpose used Crayola markers. It's also designed to help teachers and their students to explore eco-friendly practices and help kids understand the importance of their role in protecting the environment.

“What we're trying to do is slow down our impact on the environment around the world,” said Jeffco schools' Superintendent Dr. Jason Glass. “Imagine if every single school in Jeffco and every school in the world was a sustainable school and throwing away only those things that are absolutely necessary.”

The hope is that the marker drive at Hackberry is duplicated at other schools throughout Jeffco and continues year round.

Chittoor  and her nonprofit, Madhvi 4 Ecoethics, is also working with the Jeffco Schools Sustainability Committee to look into removing Styrofoam from all cafeterias in Jeffco schools.