You may have heard me say it before - I am not artistic and I am not crafty. When I am called upon to whip up a homemade project or party favor, I utilize the one medium that I feel truly comfortable working in - garbage. Whether it's juice lid Christmas ornaments (in the hectic holiday season that post didn't make it up) or milk carton bird feeders, if a craft project can be made out of materials that would have otherwise ended up in the trashcan, I am far more likely to give it a go.

As a special promotion in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day this month, Walmart will be featuring over 60 TerraCycle product including some new ones in their stores across the country.  The promotion will only last through April 29th, so go check out the products at Walmart.

Terracycle has come a long way in its nine years of existence. The company started out selling plant food made from worm waste products and more recently has begun to repurpose packaging from brands like Frito-Lay and Wrigley's into everything from messenger bags to cell phone cases. Last month, Terracycle began producing more utilitarian products, including trash cans, clip boards, and fences. Now that Terracycle is getting nationwide exposure, the company hopes that the concept of upcycling will become more familiar to consumers.

A recent podcast by the Pat Kenny show on RTE outlined a number of recycling and upcycling ideas including flavour of the month, Terracycle. TerraCycle makes affordable, eco-friendly products from a wide range of different non-recyclable waste materials. With over 50 products available at major retailers like Walmart, Target, The Home Depot, and Whole Foods Market, TerraCycle is one of the fastest growing eco-friendly manufacturers in the world.

There are new TerraCycle products - The products are available in every Walmart across the United States (only) - The products are available during the month of April (only), in honor of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day this year

Fashionable?  Well, maybe not to my taste.  Smart marketing?  I think so.  TerraCycle (http://www.terracycle.net/) is a company that collects food wrappers and containers and upcycles them into other products ranging from pet clean up products to school supplies. The program is somewhat similar to some of your favorite loyalty programs; Yoplait's "Save Lids to Save Lives,"  General Mills "Box Tops for Education" or Campbell's soup wrapper program.  Like those programs, groups, such as schools, can collect wrappers or containers and get ~.02-.03 per unit as a donation.  The wrappers and containers must be from specific sponsoring brands/products such as Frito Lay, Mars Candies and Kimberly Clark.  The sponsoring companies get "green"  halo from partnering with a green company, build consumer loyalty since TerraCycle only collects waste from specific products and then get major retailers like Home Depot and Walmart selling book bags, folders, Christmas bows, etc made from their packaging.

Through the month of April TerraCycle products will be available at Walmart locations nationwide. The best part about the partnership with Walmart is that the TerraCycle items are being sold in the same section of products from which they were made. From backpacks made from drink containers to totes made from chip packaging, TerraCycle takes recycling to a whole new level. The company specializes in affordable eco-friendly products that are created with materials that are typically non-recyclable. With help from individuals all throughout the country, TerraCycle runs a national collection program that pays schools and non-profits for collecting used packaging materials like energy bar wrappers, yogurt cups, and cookie wrappers. The items are then turned from waste into high quality products including bags, holiday bows, shower curtains, clocks, corkboards, and more.

With a blockbuster deal announced yesterdayafternoon, in a modification of the age-old adage,TerraCycle’s trash has become Walmart’s treasure. The Trenton-based manufacturing firm said a large number ofits products, all made from recycled packaging material,will be available for sale at Walmart stores nationwide. Thedeal is a huge step up for the rapidly growing city firm. “We’ve done enough good business with them in thepast that this is them giving us our shot at the bigtime,” said Albe Zakes, the company’s vicepresident of communications. “This is a majoropportunity for TerraCycle. If it goes extremely well, thenit means that Walmart is going to want to do more businesswith us.” The products will be sold in 3,429 Walmart locations nationwide.

From their classrooms to store shelves, Fort Myers schools are learning how waste can be reused instead of discarded. With hundreds of students eating lunch everyday, the teachers at several area schools - St. Michael Lutheran, Orangewood Elementary and Colonial Elementary - used to see a lot of used drink pouches get thrown away.

Whether you were in one of the PTA groups in question or the recipient being hassled by them for your trash (i.e.: empty juice pouches, snack wrappers, etc.) for the past year, all of that pestering and collecting of non-recyclable waste has finally payed off. That trash has been turned into some very useful products by TerraCycleand they’re now available in every Walmart in the US throughout the month of April! The 40th Anniversary of Earth day has rumbled some excitement among our “big box” manufacturers and retailers; finally we have huge companies like Kraft and Walmart getting in tow with small upcycling companies, namely TerraCycle, to close the life cycle loop of items destined for the landfill.