A new campaign has been launched in schools across the country encouraging students to upcycle used writins instruments.

Get paid to recycle. Start a drive at your school to collect yogurt containers, drink pouches, chip, cookie and candy packages, plus Scott and Huggies wrappers and Elmer’s glue sticks and bottles. The school can earn 2 cents per piece of packaging (terracycle.net/brigades).

Recycling machines and reverse vending machines are still fairly new -- recently I wrote about a couple of cool ones <http://news.discovery.com/tech/recycling-machines-give-back-to-greenies.html>  arriving at college campuses and other locations around the country. Unlike those, however, the "Store Collection Systems" at Wal-Mart are made by TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/> , which runs national waste materials collection programs for schools and nonprofits. The company makes eco-friendly products, including bags, coolers, and kites from materials like discarded energy bar wrappers and yogurt cups. I'm definitely a TerraCycle fan, first hearing about it back in 2007 when a colleague of mine at a short-lived online magazine interviewed founder Tom Skazy. The magazine is gone, but I still have an electronic copy of the Q&A.

Elementary school joins nationwide recycling effort MAHOPAC: After seeing a lot of discarded Capri Sun pouches, teachers at Fulmar Road Elementary School signed up to recycle them through a company called TerraCycle. The school earns two cents per pouch. The move is part of a nationwide effort that has just reached the milestone of keeping 50 million pouches out of landfills.

Students at Northern Elementary School, St. Philip’s School and Bemidji Area Schools’ Kids and Company/SummerKids program are collecting items like drink pouches, candy wrappers, chip bags, plastic baggies and plastic containers and earning their schools 2 cents for each piece of waste they send to TerraCycle, a company that makes eco-friendly products from packaging waste.

GREEN minded charity groups in Crosby are being offered the chance to raise money and help the environment. Terracycle is working with Danone yoghurts and they have launched a new programme collecting yogurt pots and they are seeking to engage schools and community groups in Crosby.

Danone Dairy Strategy Governance Director Bryan Martins adds: “Danone Dairy UK are delighted to be able to empower consumers by offering a program that allows them to upcycle their Danone pots and ensure they are reused, protect the environment and support great causes. We are encouraging schools, businesses and individuals who love Danone yogurt to set up a collection point and start their own Danone Yogurt Brigade". Through TerraCycle initiatives over 70,000 consumers in the UK have helped divert over 4 million pieces of packaging and raised over £25,000 for UK charities in 2010.

The teachers at Delshire Elementary School in Delhi used to see a lot of Capri Sun drink pouches get thrown away. Once they signed up to recycle them through a company called TerraCycle, the school began earning two cents for every one of those pouches and became part of a nationwide effort that has just reached an impressive milestone of keeping 50 million pouches out of landfills. In addition, TerraCycle, which makes affordable, eco-friendly products from packaging waste, and Capri Sun have paid one million dollars to schools and non-profits in return for the recycled drink pouches.

Beginning this month, Fairhaven, Diamond Lake and West Oak Middle schools will collect empty Capri Sun and Honest Kids drink pouches from student lunches, classroom parties, etc. Once the district has 500 pouches, it can send them to TerraCycle, a company which will re-purpose the drink pouches into items like backpacks, messenger bags, folders, clip boards and laptop cases, which the company sells on its website www.terracycle.net. The district will receive two-cents for every pouch it provides to TerraCycle.

St. Joseph School As part of the TerraCycle program, St. Joseph School collects and gets cash for various brands, including all Mars brands candy wrappers. After Halloween (and anytime), people can send those empty wrappers to school. Collection boxes are the main foyer and cafeteria. The following brands are accepted: M&Ms, Skittles and Twix, Mars and Dove bars. Also, before people dispose of this year's Halloween costumes, they should consider donating it for next year's Green Halloween Used Costume Sale.