Kraft will become the first major multi-category corporation to fund the collection of used packaging associated with its products. Several Kraft brands, including Balance bars and South Beach Living bars, Capri Sun beverages, and Chips Ahoy! and Oreo cookies, are now the lead sponsors of TerraCycle Brigades. These nationwide recycling programs make a donation for every piece of packaging a location collects.

“Sustainability is about looking out for future generations. Kraft is proud to partner with TerraCycle, an innovative company who has made it their mission to reduce the impact on landfills and to educate consumers on the importance of recycling,” says Jeff Chahley, Senior Director, Sustainability, Kraft Foods. “TerraCycle’s model of rewarding ’brigade hosts’ is a novel way of collecting packaging waste that would otherwise have been sent to landfills. It’s so cool to see trash turned into merchandise that’s unlike anything else on the market.”

Last Monday—using data gleaned from Rami Tabello’s IllegalSigns.ca—Posterchild stenciled solicitations for feedback below three illegally-run fascia signs downtown (”persistent violators,” as he put it). A play on the now-ubiquitous “How’s My Driving?” slogan typically seen on the back of big rigs, the stencils feature the number of the City’s Building Division, which is, among other tasks, responsible for sign permits. Posterchild, an equal opportunity stenciler, hit one sign each of Astral Media, Titan Outdoor, and Strategic Media. (Titan and Strategic, by the way, are the two companies currently suing the City. And Astral Media is a whole other story.)

I like seeing people use a social networking tool to argue against a corporation with a poor track record on nearly everything.

A survey by forum3, organisers of a recruitment and volunteering event for the not-for-profit sector, showed 85% of people looking for a career change would consider working in the “third” sector. Most people cited being able to progress in a career while helping a greater cause (72%) as the top reason. In fact, 59% of people say that recent world events such as theLondon bombings, Asian tsunami and Live8 have caused them to consider working in the charity sector.

Pay remains the biggest barrier to attracting the best people, putting off 70% of commercial sector workers. However if pay levels were equal, the majority (90%) would consider progressing to a career in the charity sector. Deborah Hockham, project director for forum3 said: “It’s immensely encouraging to see that the not-for-profit sector is finally losing its cardigan brigade label and being viewed as a sector which can offer strong prospects. However, it is clear the sector has its work cut out in combating a number of misperceptions. As pay gaps have narrowed, and in many areas not-for-profit pay scales have become fully aligned with those in the commercial sector, the sector clearly needs to raise awareness of, and promote this message.” CharityEmployers.com has many Charity Jobs for Canadians, where Employers can post 5 jobs for free; with the vision of saving Canadian Charities thousands of dollars in recruitment advertising costs.

Editor’s note: There is also CharityVillage and CharityJobSearch, which are also online job sites in similar fields.

Start a blog about it at IllegalSigns.ca!

IllegalSigns.ca is a team of volunteers who fight illegal billboards and this is our blog. Half the billboards in Toronto are illegal — help us bring the vast, unlawful privatization of our public visual environment to an end.

Please pardon this Toronto-centric post.