By Maggie Wehri Paper Mate and Sharpie teamed up with TerraCycle to offer consumers a way to recycle their used writing instruments. We all love our favorite highlighter, marker, pen or pencil, but after that last scribble or strike on your paper, it’s out with the old and in with the new. Because we go through these items so often, it’s a wonder there is not a better way to recycle our used highlighters, markers, pens and pencils. To help lessen our burden on the environment, Paper Mate and Sharpie teamed up with TerraCycle, a company that takes used waste and recycles into new products. TerraCycle says it technically recycles the “nonrecyclable”; these materials must be collected, sorted and processes differently than what some may consider “traditional” recyclable materials. By sending your spent writing instruments to TerraCycle, your waste can avoid the nearest landfill or incinerator and instead produce new products made from collected garbage. In turn, TerraCycle believes this reduces the need to extract new materials from the planet and therefore lessens the environmental impact. So, how can you get started? Signing up with TerraCycle is completely free and quick and easy. There are no hidden fees, and the program covers the shipping, too. Once you have joined, collect enough writing instruments to fill up a box or bag, download a prepaid shipping label and ship the box back to TerraCycle by dropping it off at the nearest UPS location. For additional information on how to collect, store and ship these items, check out this guide and read through TerraCycle’s FAQs. Acceptable waste items include pens and pen caps, mechanical pencils, markers and marker caps, permanent markers and permanent marker caps. But, what does TerraCycle do with these items? The company managed to make a recycled plastic storage bin. TerraCycle boasts about its versatile bin to store laundry, paper waste, toys, blankets, clothes and pretty much anything else you can think of. At press time, nearly 1.3 million writing instruments have been collected. If you are looking to recycle other materials beyond your writing instruments, TerraCycle offers a plethora of “nonrecyclable” programs to anyone in the continental US. From scotch tape to energy bar wrappers, TerraCycle is turning the nonrecyclable into useful recycled products for the home - See more at: http://1800recycling.com/2014/05/recycling-nonrecyclable-highlighters-markers-pens-pencils#sthash.owWm8rgn.dpuf

TerraCycle Canada is determined to keep as much waste from school lunches out of the landfill as possible. And it’s offering money to schools as an incentive. Founded in 2001, the international upcycling company collects used packaging (juice pouches, plastic bags, wrappers) and hard-to-recycle products (flip-flops, cosmetics, pens) and gives them new life as funky pencil cases, plastic garbage bins and park benches.

Imagine: Cigarette butts, whether on the street or in an ashtray, can now be turned into something useful. They could even help organizations do some modest fundraising. Yes, butt recycling has arrived in Canada, thanks to a program launched mid-May by an innovative company called TerraCycle Canada (terracycle.ca). What will those butts become? Skids or pallets made from the plastic filters, according to TerraCycle. The organic leftovers — the tobacco and paper — will be composted.

Imagine: Cigarette butts, whether on the street or in an ashtray, can now be turned into something useful. They could even help organizations do some modest fundraising. Yes, butt recycling has arrived in Canada, thanks to a program launched mid-May by an innovative company called TerraCycle Canada (terracycle.ca). What will those butts become? Skids or pallets made from the plastic filters, according to TerraCycle. The organic leftovers — the tobacco and paper — will be composted.

No one is quite sure who first discovered the cleaning method, but its effectiveness is indisputable: If one person uses a brush to swirl soapy water in the tray-cleaning bucket while another person plunges a dirty tray into the water, the tray will come out clean. The method is affectionately called “the swirly.” “The only days we can’t do it are nacho day and pasta day,” said Alexander Cohen, a fifth-grade Eco-Volunteer. Cleaning recyclable polystyrene trays at lunchtime is just one of the steps students, parent volunteers and staff at Bridge School have taken to promote recycling. What began as a parent-led initiative in which lunchtime recycling was done only on Fridays has evolved into a daily school-wide effort, with 90 student volunteers giving up recess time to help on a rotating basis.

Dear Parents, Our TerraCycle brigade has been going well! Instead of going into the landfill, these hard-to-recycle items are being turned them into affordable green products! For more information about the TerraCycle program and products, visit www.TerraCycle.net. Thank you, everyone, for your collection efforts!

Readers can participate in nationwide recycling programs this month by bringing used pens and flip-flops to area Office Depot and Old Navy locations. Between April 17 and 23, shoppers can bring in 10 used pens, markers or mechanical pencils to Office Depot and receive a coupon toward new Sanford products (maker of Sharpie, Expo, PaperMate). The used writing instruments will be sent to TerraCycle to be recycled into new office products such as trash cans and desk organizers. Office Depot has stores in St. Charles and Algonquin.

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.

The Environmental Awareness committee at Canyon Creek Elementary is introducing TerraCycle's Classroom Recycling program from January thru April 2011.  This is a great way to help by saving: Elmer Glue Sticks, Papermate and Sharpies writing instruments and Scotch tape dispensers for recycling. Parents need to send these items with their kids for collection in the classrooms. This is similar to their successful Box Top Contest.  The winning classroom will be rewarded with ice cream!  Even if you don't have students you can drop items off at the school to be distributed equally throughout the classes or to a designated

As part of the "How I Made My Millions" series, CNBC.com asked the founders and CEOs of these companies to share their experience on a variety of topics. What follows is advice for starting a business even in a tough economy from TerraCycle's Tom Szaky. Recession. Depression. Just plain tough. Whatever you call the economy today, the sane among us would have you believe it’s a lousy time to start a business. Except it isn’t. I’ve been operating TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/> in a recession-smart way since the start, and have four ways you can, too: