The kids at the Shawmont School in the Philadelphia School District have earned more than $2,000 by collecting drink pouches and sending them to TerraCycle, the Trenton, N.J., company that takes difficult-to-recycle packaging and “upcycles” it into products.

Holy Family Catholic School students have turned breakfast into cash for their school. They are among the top collectors of cereal bags in the MOM Brands Cereal Bag Brigade, a national recycling program.

Sold as fertilizer in used soda bottles, worm excrement set the scene for the still unfolding Cinderella story of TerraCycle. Founder Tom Szaky began TerraCycle in his Princeton University dorm room, then moved operations into a Trenton warehouse where the quirky company has expanded its recycling mission to include everything from cigarette butts to used diapers.

This new docuseries - part The Office, part Silicon Valley- follows TerraCycle, a New Jersey start-up that aims to end human waste.

When Tiffany Threadgould moved into her Fairmount apartment in 2012, the first thing she did was trash the place. But for Threadgould, 40, that didn't mean making a mess. On the contrary, it's all about discovering beauty - or at least function - in objects that might otherwise be destined for the landfill.

Discarded butts are being turned into something useful. The first of 50 cigarette butt recycling receptacles was installed downtown Monday. Developers of the program say New Orleans is the first US city to participate in a large-scale recycling effort launched in Canada last year.

Sachant qu’un mégot met environ 12 ans pour se désagréger complètement, leur recyclage n’a rien d’un enjeu fumeux. Des entreprises comme TerraCycle (avec ses brigades des mégots) s’engagent déjà depuis plusieurs années dans leur recyclage. Au-delà de l’intérêt environnemental, la valorisation des mégots de cigarettes pourrait désormais présenter un intérêt économique bien réel avec cette innovation coréenne.