Thursday, March 17, 2011. GAINESVILLE, Fla.  — Tom Szaky, co-founder and chief executive officer of TerraCycle, will talk about sustainable innovation and entrepreneurism at 7 p.m. March 22 in the University of Florida’s <http://www.ufl.edu>  Reitz Student Union Grand Ballroom. Szaky’s company specializes in repurposing nonrecyclable post-consumer waste. Titled “Rethinking Waste: Eco-Capitalism in Challenged Economic Times,” his speech will explore opportunities that exist in today’s environment, how to see and capitalize on hidden assets, growing business in a constrained economy and the importance of a big idea. The event is free and open to the public. Szaky started TerraCycle while he was a student at Princeton University after noticing the potential for organic waste to be converted to organic fertilizer through vermicomposting, the process of using worms to compost. Since then, the concept of “sponsored waste” has attracted more than 14 million people in 11 countries. Together they have diverted billions of pieces of waste that are upcycled or recycled into more than 1,500 products. In 2009 TerraCycle, named the most eco-friendly brand in America, opened its first retail location. Since then, the company has expanded internationally. TerraCycle has received the Home Depot Environmental Stewardship Award twice, and Szaky was named the No. 1 CEO in America under 30 years old by Inc. Magazine. He was also featured in National Geographic Channel’s miniseries, “Garbage Moguls,” and is the author of the book, “Revolution in a Bottle: How TerraCycle is Redefining Green Business.” In conjunction with Szaky’s visit, UF is participating in a number of TerraCycle collection brigades on campus. Gator Dining Services now hosts collections of energy bar wrappers, candy wrappers, and lunch kits at POD Market in the Reitz Student Union, Beaty Market, Little Hall Express and the Graham Oasis. The Office of Sustainability is now collecting for the Aveeno Beauty brigade, which collects any brand beauty and personal care tubes, Cheese Packaging brigade, and the Bear Naked bags and wrappers brigade. Szaky’s speech is part of the UF Office of Sustainability’s REthink campaign, which encourages the campus community to consider waste in its many forms and the ways they can REduce, REuse, REcycle, REpurpose, REnew, REstore, and REspond in their own lives. In addition to Szaky’s keynote, the Office of Sustainability will also be hosting a screening of the documentary “Tapped” at 7 p.m. March 23 in Florida Gym Room 280. “Tapped” examines the path of turning a basic resource into a mass-produced commodity, and explores the role and impacts of the bottled water industry on public health, energy and climate change, pollution and social equity. For more information on the event, REthink or these new recycling opportunities on campus, please visit www.sustainable.ufl.edu <http://www.sustainable.ufl.edu> .

Trash to Treasure partners with the Broward College and TerraCycle  to collect nontraditional items for reuse and recycling.  TerraCycle pays for these materials and Broward College uses the revenue to fund the Michelle Lawless Scholarship which provides tuition for a student majoring in Environmental Science.

There are many companies out there that do really cool things to help recycle. One of my favorites is Terracycle. You can mail in your items such as caparison pouches or candy wrappers and they will make really neat items for instance lunch bags and pencil cases!  I love that Terracycle makes recycling fun for the kids. They are here to help our environment and make the kids look "cool" while doing it!

Saintly Recyclers mail in their trash. Terracycle.net will recycle (usually postage is free) and donate to charity your candy wrappers, yogurt cups, drink pouches, cookie wrappers, Flavia Freshpacks, Frito-Lay chip bags, energy and granola bar wrappers, Bear Naked wrappers, Kashi packages, cell phones, Huggies and Scott tissue wrappers, Aveno tubes, Scotch tape dispensers, corks, cereal bags, Sharpies and Papermate writing instruments, Neosporin tubes, coffee bags, lunch kits (like Lunchables), Colgate tubes and packaging, Ziploc bags and containers, Inkjet cartridges, and Sprout and Revolutions food containers. Preserveproducts.com recycles your No. 5 plastics (same company that has the receptacles at Whole Foods) and water filters into toothbrushes and razors.

The items will be recycled by Terra Cycle when goals are reached and the program is aiming at collecting more than 500 items from each category each month. Following is the list of items which can be dropped off: Mars or Wrigley brand candy bar wrappers; energy bar wrappers; drink pouches; Nabisco cookie wrappers; Kashi brand wrappers or boxes; toasted chip bags; Bear Naked brand wrappers; wine bottle corks; Aveeno product tubes; Scotch tape dispensers and cores; Frito Lay chip bags; Malt-O-Meal cereal bags or boxes; Elmer's glue; Huggie's brand diaper or pull-up bag packaging; Scott's brand packaging; Neosporin brand packaging; lunchable kits; spread (butter) containers; gum wrappers; cell phones; Colgate brand packaging; yogurt cups; writing instruments; Starbucks coffee bags; plastic bottle lids; and used gift cards

That’s where TerraCycle comes into play. The goal of TerraCycle is to prevent snack and drink containers from ending up in landfills or being incinerated. TerraCycle helps band consumers together into groups — called “Brigades” — to return used packaging in bulk to TerraCycle. Returned goods are then cleaned out and transformed into new products including bags, coolers, clip boards, picture frames and kites. In addition, for every package returned the brigade earns money to put towards a charity of their choice or, if the team is from a school or non-profit organization, they can keep the money to further their mission.  It is a win-win program: people can reduce their waste while raising money for a good cause. As word spreads about TerraCycle more and more snack and beverage companies are joining the program, meaning even more packaging can be returned and re-purposed. Some major companies whose wrappers can be sent back to TerraCycle include: Stonyfield, Capri Sun, Frito Lay, Kraft, Mars Wrigley, Kashi, Aveeno, Colgate, and Ziploc. The recycled products that TerraCycle produces are then sold at major retailers, including Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and K-Mart. The end products are labeled as TerraCycle products, so consumers know they are supporting a good cause and creating demand for the program. According to the TerraCycle website, there are 11,597,783 people collecting trash with TerraCycle brigades, and over one billion units of waste have already been collected and re-purposed into 186 different products. If that doesn’t already sound good enough, these efforts also helped raise $1.2 Million for various schools, non profits, and charities across the country.

TerraCycle's program benefiting nonprofits and schools The company collects what is typically nonrecyclable waste, such as candy and snack wrappers, pens, coffee bags and toothpaste tubes, from consumers, as well as recyclable items such as cell phones, plastic containers and more. It uses the trash to make new products sold at major retailers including Target, Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Consumers who make the effort to get their trash to TerraCycle earn monetary rewards that go to nonprofits of their choice. Some manufacturers, such as skin care products maker Aveeno, even encourage consumers to send their brands' empty product containers to TerraCycle for repurposing.

Incentive programs aim to spread environmental awareness to more-mainstream consumers \ TerraCycle's program benefiting nonprofits and schools The company collects what is typically nonrecyclable waste, such as candy and snack wrappers, pens, coffee bags and toothpaste tubes, from consumers, as well as recyclable items such as cell phones, plastic containers and more. It uses the trash to make new products sold at major retailers including Target, Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Consumers who make the effort to get their trash to TerraCycle earn monetary rewards that go to nonprofits of their choice. Some manufacturers, such as skin care products maker Aveeno, even encourage consumers to send their brands' empty product containers to TerraCycle for repurposing.

Terracycle <http://www.terracycle.net/>  is always coming up  with fun and cool ways to recycle, but they also have come up with a way  (actually 6 ways) Moms can go green, reduce waste at home, AND raise  money for their kids school and/or favorite charity. Terracycle realizes  Moms have enough things to think about without wondering how to reduce  the amount of waste leaving their home and heading to the local  landfill. So they have come up with six new Brigades (read as free  collection programs!) to make it easier than ever for parents to  eliminate waste from their home while raising money for a school or  charity of their choice. All you  need to do is collect and send in the  packaging you discard every day, TerraCycle pays the postage and  contributes two cents per unit of waste returned! Participating Products  include Colgate, Ziploc, Country Crock, Neosporin, Aveeno and Many Many  More!

Programs that encourage environmentally benign buying pay off for both consumers and businesses. Manufacturers and retailers are participating in green rewards programs that give shoppers the chance to earn points toward purchases of other products by living sustainably. Consumers get some welcome greenbacks for making environmentally friendly choices. Meanwhile, companies get to burnish their environmental reputations, attracting more consumers who already make a point of buying green products from good environmental stewards. At the same time, the distribution of associated coupons and rewards raises foot traffic and brand awareness. Advocates of eco-conscious living hope the programs will spread environmental awareness to more-mainstream consumers, who may be deterred by higher prices for organic food or the extra time it might take to separate out their recyclables. The economic downturn is “a great time to introduce an incentive” for sustainable living, says Tiger Beaudoin, the founder and vice president of marketing for EcoBonus, a green rewards program that will launch on Earth Day 2011. “People have good intentions, but price is an important purchase driver.”