Tom Szaky: Founder and CEO of TerraCycle, which makes consumer products from post-consumer waste primarily collected in U.S. schools and through 2.6 million members of his “trash brigades.” Capri Sun juice pouches become pencil cases, circuit boards become picture frames and clocks, and Oreo cookie wrappers morph into kites.

New Jersey-based TerraCycle, which collects non-recyclable, or difficult-to-recycle, waste, has partnered with major corporation Mondelez International, which owns Cadbury, to launch a recycling waste campaign on the Asian market.

Through a program called TerraCycle, fourth grade student Julia Kourtney spearheaded an effort that earned her school hundreds of dollars. By Lauren Evans | Email the author | 12:30pm TerraCycle uses discarded packaging materials to make items such as tote bags and pencil cases. TerraCycle uses discarded packaging materials to make items such as tote bags and pencil cases. Like many of her classmates, Julia Kourtney, a fourth grader at P.S. 94, was already an avid recycler. But when she discovered there was money to made from her empty Capri Sun juice pouches, she started collecting those, too. Linda Kourtney, Julia's mother, said her daughter noticed the logo for TerraCycle, an organization that collects everything from chip bags to old cell phones, emblazoned on her lunchtime juice pouches, and became intrigued by the company's offer of two cents for every emptied pouch that gets mailed in. "She kept bringing the pouches home saying 'Mom, they're two cents!'" Kourtney said. "We asked the principal if we could do this sort of thing, and she said 'sure.'" Linda and her daughter placed cardboard boxes around the school grounds, in which students tossed their empty Capri Sun pouches. The younger Kourtney routinely empties the pouches from the boxes and sends them back to TerraCycle. Last year, Kourtney's efforts earned the school a whopping $660, much of which will be donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The rest will go back to P.S. 94, to be divided between funding for the school's science department and a party for the students involved in the recycling program. Once the pouches reach the TerraCycle plant, they are either upcycled—meaning they're converted into products like tote bags or backpacks—or recycled into construction materials like composite lumber or flooring, said TerraCycle's public relations intern David Smith. According to TerraCycle's website, the organization has collected 95,095,977 pouches through the program. But to the students at P.S. 94, though, there's nothing remarkable or radical about their efforts. "The kids are just really interested," Kourtney said. "They recycle in the school anyway. It was really normal for them to just put the pouches in a separate bin.”

DCS Montessori School recently teamed up with TerraCycle to start turning collected waste into new products and materials, ranging from park benches to backpacks. TerraCycle recycles and upcycles used packaging from familiar products like Capri Sun, Lays, and Oreos. Out of this comes more than 1,500 various products available at major retailers. Founded in 2001, TerraCycle’s goal is eliminate the idea of waste. This year, the Montessori school is participating in two “brigades,” which are national programs to collect specific previously non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste. First, the school will collect old cell phones from now until the end of the year by placing collection boxes near the main office and by the front doors. DCS Montessori has asked all students and parents to send in their old cell phones to benefit the environment and the school. Later this year, the school will select another brigade.

Even the Ivy League isn't immune to dropouts. Tom Szaky -- a Canadian who didn't know that Princeton was in New Jersey until he got to campus -- left college after two years. Szaky was on fall break during freshman year in Montreal when he saw a bountiful weed (yes, that kind of weed) harvest that owed its success to worm and organic waste. The light bulb went off, and he began packaging worm waste in used soda bottles that later ended up on the shelves of Home Depot and Walmart. Over the next year, he would head home after class and work on his business, the way college basketball players head to the gym to work on their free throws. He didn't solicit help from professors and says the faculty was "hands-off" in that respect. By his sophomore year, TerraCycle was taking off -- he had a logo, a name and a diversified body of products -- and it was now or never. "I would have loved to stay in school, but TerraCycle was starting to grow and I was putting more time into it," says Szaky, 28, also a member of the AOL Small Business Board of Directors. "I took a semester off, which turned into a permanent leave." The business has evolved since 2003 -- kites made of Oreo wrappers and picture frames wrapped in bicycle chains, part of the company's "upcycling" line of products, helped catapult revenues to $7.5 million in 2009 -- but he still spends time on campus as a guest lecturer and thinks teaching could be a fun career down the road. For now, he's focused on waste, and he's able to indulge his inner dork with the science of composting. Looks like he didn't need that behavioral economics degree after all, much like other dropouts who felt the need to quit school and carpe diem. "I have nothing against school," says Szaky, author of Revolution in a Bottle. "TerraCycle was happening, and that was the decision at the moment."

For those not familiar with "Terracycle", it is one of many organizations that work to create useful items out of waste products. "Terracycle", in conjunction with both consumers and people from within the food and beverage industry, collects empty and discarded items like foil cheese packets, foil beverage pouches, potato chip bags, gum wrappers, beverage bottles and other items. "Terracycle" then converts those items into a wide array of new items like insulated coolers, garbage cans, fences, plant food, household cleaners, photo frames, jewel cases, clothing and fashion accessories. Part of the proceeds from the sale of those items is in turn donated to area schools and non-profit groups.

In 2010 proof of the ever burgeoning green movement can be found throughout the stories that made it into the headlines of mainstream media. For instance, there were several stories of various young ladies creating prom dresses out of used gum wrappers and foil beverage pouches. In addition, more and more items made from recycled materials such as t-shirts made from ground up soda bottles began showing up in retail stores. This increase in repurposing materials has caused food and beverage manufacturers like Kraft Foods to stand up and take notice. Proof in point is the company's recent decision to add foil cheese packets to their pre-existing "Terracycle Collection Program."

This increase in repurposing materials has caused food and beverage manufacturers like Kraft Foods to stand up and take notice. Proof in point is the company's recent decision to add foil cheese packets to their pre-existing "Terracycle Collection Program." In Packaging Everything Old is New Again For those not familiar with "Terracycle", it is one of many organizations that work to create useful items out of waste products. "Terracycle", in conjunction with both consumers and people from within the food and beverage industry, collects empty and discarded items like foil cheese packets, foil beverage pouches, potato chip bags, gum wrappers, beverage bottles and other items. "Terracycle" then converts those items into a wide array of new items like insulated coolers, garbage cans, fences, plant food, household cleaners, photo frames, jewel cases, clothing and fashion accessories. Part of the proceeds from the sale of those items is in turn donated to area schools and non-profit groups.

Secondly, swing by TerraCycle (http://www.terracycle.net/) to see if you regularly accumulate the nonrecyclable items that they will pay you to send them! Terracycle is an organization pioneered by Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer, two freshmen at Princeton University in 2001, who believe that in nature, there is no such thing as waste. Animals eat each other and become fertilizer for plants that are eaten by animals that are eaten, etc. While Szaky and Beyer don't promote cannibalism, they do promote upcycling, meaning they reuse what we might consider waste.