Juice pouches, empty tape rolls, writing utensils & more: Does an item have you scratching your head, wondering if it’s recyclable? Check out Terracycle’s Brigades program, which offers national programs to collect previously non-recyclable or hard to recycle waste.

Founded in 2001, TerraCycle takes someone’s trash and turns it into someone else’s treasure. The company collects non-recyclable, post-consumer materials and remakes them into other consumer products, including backpacks and flower pots. Fast forward to 2014, when the company’s revenues hit about $19 million. Clearly, there’s money to be made in garbage.

Another important step was finding a company, Terracycle, that will recycle items not normally accepted by recycling companies: “markers, pens, old binders, earplugs, gloves you would wear to change a diaper,” said Kristof. “Through Terracycle you can even get money for your school.” Terracycle works with schools, often larger schools - Dryden school district has a recycling partnership with the company- where they organize “brigades” of students sorting recyclables into separate categories.

Thanks to a Hilton Travel with a Purpose grant, Keep Golden Isles Beautiful now can store and ship designated non-traditional recyclables to TerraCycle for recycling. Items now accepted by appointment at the Keep Golden Isles Beautiful offices include, oral care products, beauty/personal care products, chip/snack bags, tape dispensers, cereal bags, solo cups, pens/markers/highlighters, drink pouches, Brita/PUR products and cigarettes.

The TerraCycle campaign took back from the landfills more than 220,000 waste units that were re-purposed by TerraCycle for a rebate value of $2,218.60. In addition, TerraCycle accepted 102,990 units of cigarette waste for upcycling. While there is no cash value for that portion of the donations, the rewards to the earth are priceless.

As Albe Zakes — the VP of TerraCycle, a global recycling network — led me through the company's headquarters, he stopped in his tracks once we reached a piece of scrap metal inscribed with the company's logo. "Oh, that must be new. Definitely wasn't here yesterday," he said, and we continued our tour. That brief moment perfectly exemplified the innovative, ever-changing company. The brainchild of environmentally minded entrepreneur Tom Szaky, TerraCycle has a mission almost as creative as its office space — a New Jersey warehouse entirely furnished with material that's been reused and recycled.

The school earned the playground after winning the TerraCycle Recycled Playground Challenge earlier this year. Flanders joined schools from across the state and throughout New York, New Jersey, Penn., Delaware, and Maryland, who were participating in the Colgate Oral Care Brigade, a free recycling program offered by Colgate and TerraCycle. All schools participating in the program were eligible to compete for the new playground, and Flanders took first place in the contest by collecting oral care products and casting online votes - tallying up a total of 240,436 "playground credits."

Cascade Ridge Elementary School students have kept thousands of apple sauce and drink pouches out of the landfill since the school joined TerraCycle’s national recycling program. Founded in 2001, TerraCycle is an international company that collects difficult-to-recycle packaging and products to repurpose the material into affordable products. Cascade Ridge participates in two of 30 programs TerraCycle offers, according to the elementary school’s Dean of Students Jennifer Sehlin.