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

If viewers who tuned into the second season of the workplace reality show “Human Resources” on Pivot this month came away feeling vindicated for Tony Rossi, the new guy who proved himself on trivia night, or relieved for Dan Harris, the sales director who scored an important new account, Tom Szaky, their boss, wouldn’t mind.

Running through Sept. 30, schools located throughout Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Wisconsin are eligible to compete for a new playground made completely of recycled material by joining TerraCycle’s Oral Care Brigade program. Currently, Novi Woods Elementary is in the top 15.

Woodridge Elementary School students have earned $1,100 for the school by collecting more than 10,000 drink pouches. The school competed in TerraCycle and Capri Sun’s Drink Pouch Brigade contest. The program rewards people who collect and send their waste to TerraCycle to be recycled or upcycled.

School is just around the corner and it’s time to load up on all those back to school supplies. I used to love getting new supplies, my mom would have everything laid out in the living room and we would collect what we needed.

As most of us have recently been hearing across the media spectrum, recycling today is in trouble. Recyclers can’t secure the margins that make recycling profitable, recovery rates are stagnant, and waste management companies are looking at the future of the U.S.’s recycling infrastructure with a skeptical eye. What can we do, as social entrepreneurs and conscious consumers, to get back on track?

Human beings manufacture nearly 200 billion pounds of plastic every year. To really grasp that figure, consider these facts: there are also about 200 billion stars in the Milky Way and approximately the same number of galaxies in the entire universe.

Butterfield Elementary School

Sanger school is a top collector of recyclables

Butterfield Elementary School is one of the top Texas collectors in TerraCycle’s Personal Care and Beauty Brigade recycling program.Students at the Sanger school collected hair care, skin care and cosmetic product packaging and assisted in diverting 7,200 units of waste from landfills, according to TerraCycle officials.

There are a lot of ways to raise money, but school districts are getting smarter and clever in how they go about doing it. Such is the case with students at Yake Elementary School who figured out a way to soak up the sun — Capri Suns to be more specific — while earning several hundred dollars all at the same time.