What do you do with your trash? There is only so much that can be recycled. What about the stuff that can't be recycled?
TerraCycle works with over thirty major brands in the US (and in a growing number of other countries) to collect used packaging and products (chip bags, candy wrappers, juice pouches, pens, toothbrushes, etc.) that would otherwise be destined for landfills.
Malt-O-Meal has announced a new partnership with TerraCycle. The partnership will create 1,250 Malt-O-Meal Cereal Bag Brigades in elementary and secondary schools across the country.
Malt-O-Meal Cereal Bag Brigades will function as collection sites for Malt-O-Meal cereal bags and help prevent a significant amount of packaging waste from going into landfills. Individuals or school groups can sign up to sponsor a Brigade, with proceeds to benefit a designated school, school-sponsored club, or school-sponsored special interest group. There is no cost to start a Brigade, and all shipping costs are paid. For every Malt-O-Meal cereal bag collected and upcycled through TerraCycle, the designated school will receive a $.02 donation from TerraCycle.
TerraCycle <
http://www.terracycle.net> is the world’s leader in the collection and reuse of non-recyclable post-consumer waste. TerraCycle works with over thirty major brands in the US (and in a growing number of other countries) to collect used packaging and products (chip bags, candy wrappers, juice pouches, pens, toothbrushes, etc.) that would otherwise be destined for landfills.
Minneapolis-based Malt-O-Meal Company, the largest family owned cereal manufacturer in the country, today announced a new partnership with TerraCycle, an upstart up-cycling company that takes packaging materials and turns them into affordable, high quality goods. The partnership will create 1,250 Malt-O-Meal Cereal Bag Brigades in elementary and secondary schools across the country.
Malt-O-Meal Cereal Bag Brigades will function as collection sites for post-use Malt-O-Meal cereal bags and help prevent a significant amount of packaging waste from going into landfills. Individuals or school groups can sign up to sponsor a Brigade, with proceeds to benefit a designated school, school-sponsored club, or school-sponsored special interest group. There is no cost to start a Brigade, and all shipping costs are paid. For every Malt-O-Meal cereal bag collected and upcycled through TerraCycle, the designated school will receive a $.02 donation from TerraCycle.
The kids collect everything from candy wrappers to water bottles and send them off to be turned into products for you, and money for their school.
"They're keeping all this from going into landfills," said Cindy Kelley, of the Delta Parent Teacher Organization.
"We found potato chip bags and drink pouches," said Ashgen Dozier, a student. "Then we send it off and they turn it into purses and stuff."
"Other fund raisers, the kids have to go and sell items and with this they already have the items," said Kelley. "This way they just have to take it to the school."
Kelley says she found out about the program from the back of a juice box. She checked it out and discovered all the kids had to do was collect trash either by picking up litter or looking into trash bins, or saving their waste.
"We took a little teasing because we look in trash cans," said Kelley. "But we use gloves and do it safely."
"We've raised $801," said Grant Coomer, a Delta Elementary student.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_f-ti5KUWw
WOOLWICH TWP. Fifty first-grade students at the Gov. Charles Stratton School demonstrated what they've learned about recycling and composting this year in "Composting - The Musical."
They sang songs on Thursday about what can be recycled, what can be composted and what kids can do themselves to help keep the landfills empty.
"This year the first-graders got a chance to see first hand how they can make a difference," Joann Ellis, one of the school's teachers, said.
The children have been taking part in a recycling program with Trenton-based Terracycle.
The company makes eco-friendly items from materials that would normally be non-recyclable.
Students at the school have been sending their trash to Terracycle for the last five months including 607 cookie wrappers, 9,025 drink pouches, 2,984 chip bags, 263 Elmer glue sticks and 24 Scotch tape rolls.
For each item they donate Terracycle gives the school two cents, which gets donated to charity.
Why is WalMart selling trash? Because it is coming repurposed from TerraCycle Inc. I’m sure you have seen some of their stuff. TerraCycle sells backpacks, kites and coolers made from reused drink pouches, chip bags and candy wrappers.
Their products are actually really cool looking. I see them everywhere. My son’s school even collects Capri Sun pouches for them. However, so far, the venture has lost money. The items they use are otherwise tough to recycle trash.
Thankfully for TerraCycle (and the landfills), WalMart agreed to sell dozens of the products in connection with Earth Day during April. If enough of the items sold during the trial period, the company would land a huge deal with WalMart. If I had realized that, I would’ve picked up a couple of their things. I saw them, but really wasn’t in the market for them in April.
In 2001, enterprising 19-year-old Princeton student Tom Szaky started TerraCycle <
http://www.terracycle.net/> to turn out containers of organic fertilizer produced by worms for an entry in the school's business plan competition. He used old soda bottles to sell the fertilizer, and cleared $1 million in 2006. Over the next few years, Szaky expanded the company to produce goods made from upcycled, non-recyclable materials: totes made from plastic shopping bags, kites made from cookie packages, and laptop cases made from drink pouches (among others). You can even send TerraCycle your own trash and they'll turn it into part of their product line.
A program that turns kids' trash into school cash helped send Truman Benedict Elementary School students to camp last month. Now they're back and showing off their own trash creations.
Fifth-graders at the San Clemente school boxed up Capri Sun juice pouches and chip bags earlier this year and sent them to a New Jersey company called Terracycle, which
"upcycles" <
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/school-240299-schools-recycling.html> trash into backpacks, kites and other products sold at stores such as Wal-Mart. In exchange, the school got $30 per student to go to a science camp and 2 cents for each piece of trash collected. (Click the "Graphics" tab above to see how the process works.)
A program that turns kids' trash into school cash helped send Truman Benedict Elementary School students to camp last month. Now they're back and showing off their own trash creations.
Fifth-graders at the San Clemente school boxed up Capri Sun juice pouches and chip bags earlier this year and sent them to a New Jersey company called Terracycle, which
"upcycles" trash into backpacks, kites and other products sold at stores such as Wal-Mart. In exchange, the school got $30 per student to go to a science camp and 2 cents for each piece of trash collected. (Click the "Graphics" tab above to see how the process works.)
The students attended the May 24-27 camp in Running Springs, Calif., and learned how to make their own upcycled products. Students had to create projects using five different kinds of trash.
As many great companies do, this one started in a dorm room. Yet the light-bulb idea that emerged from these tight living quarters was... collecting trash? TerraCycle, founded by Tom Szaky, is a company that "upcycles" waste into affordable, eco-friendly products ranging from worm-waste fertilizer to messenger bags and school supplies. A company that has mobilized over 10 million people to collect trash, diverted over 1.9 billion units of waste from landfills, boasted a revenue of $7.5 million, and donated $1 billion to schools and nonprofits, TerraCycle’s road to success was a result of hard work, persistence, and the courage to take risks. A college drop-out with nothing but a firm belief in his vision, Szaky recalls, "In those early days, no one returned my phone calls. I would literally be laughed at when I tried to call retailers to sell them my fertilizer." But today, nothing is impossible. Szaky resolves, "I hope in five years from now there will be a TerraCycle upcycling bin in every school, church, and retail location in America!"
