TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/>  is the company that takes what others may consider trash and upcycles it into not only useable but very creative and stylish products. Tom Szaky  <http://www.terracycle.net/> is the founder and CEO of TerraCycle and was named one of the fastest growing private companies by Inc. magazine in 2009. Tom and TerraCycle have started to change the way individuals and companies see waste. Since 2007, over 60,000 locations and 7 million people are helping to collect, instead of discard their trash. Over 1 billion pieces of pre and post consumer packaging have been collected and over 250,000 dollars have been donated to schools and non profits.

An exceptional fourth-grader from Southwestern Central School is showing her classmates and community that there can be more to recycling than simply placing one's paper, tin, glass and plastic on street curbs for collection once a week. In order to do this, Erin has received permission from her principal, Bill Caldwell, to set up boxes in her school's cafeteria to collect all the empty juice pouches that would otherwise be tossed in the trash. The plan is to mail the pouches to the Terracycle organization everytime the boxes are full, and in return

TerraCycle, a Trenton-based company which specializes in upcycling or making eco-friendly products from post-consumer waste, partnered with Walmart in forming the Trash to Cash Collection contest. The free program will reward the top collecting New Jersey public schools with $125,000 dollars in aggregate school grants. The grand prize is $50,000, with grants ranging down to $5,000.

Terracycle have started a new programme for schools where all money raised through it goes to the school. It also teaches children about social responsibility and encourages them to think about their own impact on the environment.

We know not every blue box accepts every piece of waste that a normal household generates so we were excited to hear about TerraCycle's initiatives to reuse more items that normally would just go to landfill.  The 28-year-old Canadian founder and president Tom Szaky has been quoted that there is no such thing as garbage and he means it.  TerraCycle is working with community groups and schools to collect unwanted old yogourt cups, plastic bottles and other items and paying them a small amount of money that is donated to charity.

With kindergarten teacher Karen Dunlap as their leader, the Norristown school collects drink pouches, chip bags and cookie wrappers — hard-to-recycle waste — and sends them away to be upcycled into eco-friendly products. Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials, and it’s what the Trenton, N.J.-based company TerraCycle does with candy wrappers, energy bar wrappers and other consumer products, while at the same time paying the schools and charitable organizations that collect the used packaging.

With kindergarten teacher Karen Dunlap as their leader, the Norristown school collects drink pouches, chip bags and cookie wrappers — hard-to-recycle waste — and sends them away to be upcycled into eco-friendly products. Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials, and it’s what the Trenton, N.J.-based company TerraCycle does with candy wrappers, energy bar wrappers and other consumer products, while at the same time paying the schools and charitable organizations that collect the used packaging.

With kindergarten teacher Karen Dunlap as their leader, the Norristown school collects drink pouches, chip bags and cookie wrappers — hard-to-recycle waste — and sends them away to be upcycled into eco-friendly products. Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials, and it’s what the Trenton, N.J.-based company TerraCycle does with candy wrappers, energy bar wrappers and other consumer products, while at the same time paying the schools and charitable organizations that collect the used packaging.

Kristina Greene, 41, helps Westford residents convert trash into treasure. How does Upcycle It! work? We take technically non-recyclable items and send them to TerraCycle, which pays 2 cents for every item we send in. The money goes to Westford schools; the items are made into other things. What kinds of things does Upcycle It! accept? Drink pouches, energy bar wrappers, cookie wrappers, chip bags, Elmer’s glue containers, candy wrappers, coffee bags, wine corks, oral care products, and writing instruments.

Of all the reusable bags I've amassed over the years - and not a duplicate among them - the one that seems to be the favorite of grocery store baggers is the TerraCycle sack made from Capri Sun drink pouches. It's my favorite, too. It's incredibly sturdy, ooze-proof and pretty snappy looking to boot. TerraCycle and Capri Sun recently announced that their Drink Pouch Brigade ? schools and organizations that participate in a free fundraiser that pays 2 cents for every drink pouch collected ? has broken the 50 million mark. TerraCycle and Capri Sun pay for every pouch collected, so that means $1 million has been returned to the groups just for stuff that would otherwise be garbage.