Every Color Except Green

Witness the seemingly guileless Crayola marker. Most of us used them as kids -- if your parent/teacher was extra awesome you had access to the 12-pack with obscure colors like Sandy Tan and Blue Lagoon -- and never spared a thought as to what happened to them after the ink ran dry.

But the world is a very different place these days and kids start worrying about the planet seemingly from birth. So it was inevitable that someone would eventually grasp that all of those spent markers represent a lot of plastic that isn't getting recycled. Now a petition on Change.org started by a class of San Rafael, Calif. elementary school students seeks to goad Crayola into offering a takeback program for its markers. In addition to diverting a lot of marker casings from landfills, the petition's organizers say they hope that Crayola might set an example for other marker manufacturers.

The California Product Stewardship Council recently threw its weight behind the petition, which is currently 13,000 signatures shy of its 75,000 signature goal.