Academies at Gerrard Berman Day School in Oakland is teaching students about sustainability while making a significant impact on the environment. Through use of TerraCycle programs and Zero Waste Boxes, the school helps turn waste, such as snack wrappers and old school supplies, into new plastic products. Academies at GBDS participates in TerraCycle’s free, national Brigade programs, recycling items such as Entenmann’s Little Bites packaging, Capri Sun drink pouches, Scotch tape dispensers and E-waste.

If you are one of the many people who use PUR or Brita filters for your water, there is exciting news! Both companies have partnered with TerraCycle to create recycling programs

TerraCycle, an award-winning company that specializes in recycling hard-to-recycle waste, wants to help small businesses achieve their green initiatives while giving back to the community. If your company signs up to a TerraCycle "Brigade" and begins collecting specific items such as Scotch tape dispensers, toner cartridges, pens, drink pouches, potato chip bags and more, TerraCycle will process those items and your company can earn money for the school or charity of your choice.

TerraCycle, an award-winning company that specializes in recycling hard-to-recycle waste, wants to help small businesses achieve their green initiatives while giving back to the community. If your company signs up to a TerraCycle “Brigade” and begins collecting specific items such as Scotch tape dispensers, toner cartridges, pens, drink pouches, potato chip bags and more, TerraCycle will process those items and your company can earn money for the school or charity of your choice.

TerraCycle, the New Jersey-based company that specializes in upcycling waste packaging into durable consumer products, will soon launch a program for disposable diapers, according to Waste & Recycling News. Ernie Simpson, global vice president of research and development for Terracycle, says the company is 90 percent finished with the development of a continuous process for collecting, sterilizing and processing used diapers. Certain parts of the diaper will be compostable, and the remaining materials will be upcycled into plastic lumber, pallets and outdoor furniture.

Happy TerraCycle Tuesday! Today the spotlight is on the Scotch Tape Brigade. If you're anything like my mom and I, you go through rolls and rolls (and rolls) of tape this time of year. While you're wrapping all those gifts, be sure to save the tape dispensers and cores to send in for TerraCycle.

For my final post in this TerraCycle Refresher Week, I'd like to give you a glimpse into how TerraCycle operates here in our elementary school.

EAST AMWELL TWP. — Where most people see trash, the township school’s Environmental Club sees cash. That has won $50,000 for the school, the top prize in a TerraCycle-Walmart contest for New Jersey public schools. It did so by blitzing TerraCycle with 52,640 plastic wrappers and containers during the two-and-a-half-month contest. “You can’t get much greener than this!” exclaimed the club’s adviser, fifth-grade language arts and science teacher Sharon Ernst. It all started in 2008 with Ernst casting about for a way to raise money for an Environmental Club for fourth- and fifth-graders. She wanted to do something applicable to stewardship, which ruled out fundraisers such as bake sales. She considered selling seeds, then a parent mentioned TerraCycle, which pays nonprofit groups that send it hard-to-recycle items for reuse or recycling. Since then, the club has gathered, for instance, more than 30,000 empty Capri Sun containers. The money was spent on plants that allow Ernst to raise Monarch butterflies. She uses the pollinators in her lessons on ecosystems.

EAST AMWELL TWP. — Where most people see trash, the township school’s Environmental Club sees cash. That has won $50,000 for the school, the top prize in a TerraCycle-Walmart contest for New Jersey public schools. It did so by blitzing TerraCycle with 52,640 plastic wrappers and containers during the two-and-a-half-month contest. “You can’t get much greener than this!” exclaimed the club’s adviser, fifth-grade language arts and science teacher Sharon Ernst. It all started in 2008 with Ernst casting about for a way to raise money for an Environmental Club for fourth- and fifth-graders. She wanted to do something applicable to stewardship, which ruled out fundraisers such as bake sales. She considered selling seeds, then a parent mentioned TerraCycle, which pays nonprofit groups that send it hard-to-recycle items for reuse or recycling.