Many of my invitations to TerraCycle are met with strong, no-thank-you affirmations, "I already recycle." "I've been recycling my entire life" (with a clear implication that the time is longer than I have been alive). A recycler is already traveling the right road to becoming a TerraCycler, but every single person may engage in TerraCycling and, for many reasons, it's not the same as recycling. One reason I would like to focus on is the concept of ZERO WASTE! A trash item sent to TerraCycle is fully re—used, recycled, re—purposed, or upcycled with no waste—nothing incinerated, nothing dumped into the earth, nothing permitted to quagmire into aquatic imbroglios. TerraCycle is committed to eliminating global waste by taking anything bound for a landfill and turning it into a functional new product—from back packs to park benches, cereal bags to building materials, fence posts to writing instruments, TerraCycle is changing the way the world sees trash and benefitting not-for-profits in the process. Beauty and personal care cases, containers, dispensers, tubes and bottles from items such as lipstick, mascara, eye shadow, shampoo and conditioner, bronzer, foundation, body wash, hand soap, lotion, shaving foam, powder, body lotion/cream, lip balm/gloss, face soap, face lotion, concealer; Brita pitchers, dispensers, bottles, faucet systems, all filters and packaging; standard cell phones, smart phones, and iPhones; cereal bags and plastic cereal bag liners; individual and large/outer flexible cheese packaging found on items such as shredded cheese, string cheese, individual slices, solid cheese blocks, deli—style sliced cheese and other large cheese packaging; extinguished cigarettes, cigarette filters, loose tobacco pouches, outer plastic packaging, inner foil packaging, rolling papers, ash; dairy tubs, seals, and lids from items such as yogurt, sour cream, cream cheese, butter and margarine, whipped topping, pudding, plastic ice cream tubs and lids; plastic diaper packaging, wipes outer plastic packaging, and individual wipes packaging; aluminum and plastic drink pouches, and baby food and drink pouches; laptop, tablet, e-reader, Ipod, MP3 player, camera, digital camera, camcorder, GPS unit, and graphing calculator e-waste; baby and toddler food pouches and caps; Elmer's glue sticks, bottles, and caps; any foil-lined energy bar wrappers, granola bar wrappers or protein bar wrappers; Entenmann's plastic pouches; tubs, lids, and seals from all hummus containers; all inkjet cartridges and many toner cartridges; plastic trays and lids, plastic film, outer wrapping, and packaging; all individual, multi—pack and family size snack bags; all No. 6 rigid cups; plastic tape dispensers and cores; all toothpaste tubes with caps, toothbrushes, toothbrush and toothpaste packaging, and floss containers; pens and pen caps, mechanical pencils, markers and marker caps, highlighters and caps, permanent markers and caps. Are you one of the people collecting TerraCycle items? Does your fridge magnet, office desk, or church bulletin have a current list of TerraCycle brigades? If not, why not? Easier to let someone else take the responsibility? As I challenged in this column last week, let's go beyond easy! Add your name, church, business or organization to the growing list of TerraCyclers! To check out what trash TerraCycle can take, review the details and pictures at www.CoyoteHowlingShopForaCause.com, or visit Coyote Howling and learn how to take your trash back from the landfills and use it to fund meals for children. Coyote Howling's designated nonprofit: Feed My Starving Children. Tonya Huber, PhD, is founder and owner of Coyote Howling Shop for a Cause Contact her at CoyoteHowlingNM@gmail.com 575-808-8320.

Sustainability is quickly becoming less of a consideration and more of a necessity for corporate entities and industries in the United States. This means putting an increased focus on efficiency through sustainability and alternative solutions, resulting in less operational waste. For cleanrooms and laboratories, this can also mean safer working environments and an increase in employee morale due to the corporate commitment that many companies are making. Despite many corporations taking a fresh look at ways to become greener, sustainability can be difficult to manage for facilities dealing with hazardous materials and other contaminates. The disposal of things like safety garments and protective gloves, for instance, has been a challenging issue due to the sheer volume of these items that are consumed. The traditional disposal option for items like these is the garbage, where they eventually end up in a landfill. While landfilling is one of the cheapest disposal methods, hazardous leachate may seep into the groundwater; plus, the synthetic polymers in protective clothing and gloves will not degrade over time in a landfill. Some consider incineration to be a more sustainable option, though massive quantities of greenhouses gases and pollutants are released into the air using this method of destruction. The ideal option for things like disposable garments and gloves is recycling. However, recycling rates in the United States are still dismally low: only about four percent¹ of the hazardous waste and 34.7 percent of the municipal solid waste² was recycled in 2011. Items made of multiple components, such as synthetic fiber garments with protective linings, are even more difficult and expensive to recycle as each component must be separated and recycled individually. The traditional approach to recycling (through municipalities) does not work in this scenario because the cost of collecting, sorting, and processing materials is greater than the value of the recycled output. For this reason, more and more corporate entities are beginning to focus on non-traditional recycling options to solve for their waste streams. For example, Kimberly-Clark Professional (KCP) started a large-scale recycling program, called RightCycle, for cleanroom garments and nitrile gloves. The program allows cleanroom staff to collect their used garments, boot covers, hairnets, nitrile gloves, and other related items for recycling. These waste items are stored in on-site collection boxes which are organized onto pallets.  These sites coordinate pick-ups with their back-end recycling partner, TerraCycle. Photo: Kimberly-Clark ProfessionalSince the end of 2011, the RightCycle program has diverted more than 182,000 pounds of KCP garments and gloves from landfills, a testament to how viable programs like these can be. The company’s larger goal is to keep all of their manufacturing waste from landfills by 2015.  For context, its Global Nonwovens Division is already diverting 99 percent of manufacturing waste from landfills. All of the garments and nitrile gloves collected through the RightCycle platform are pelletized and used to replace virgin plastics in the manufacturing process. Some of the products that TerraCycle is able to create from the recycled garments and gloves are things like industrial pallets, recycled plastic lumber, and Adirondack chairs. By being repurposed instead of landfilled, the materials retain some of their value as a new raw material. Programs like this one are setting the benchmark for take-back options, making work environments more environmentally responsible while helping to achieve overall strides in sustainability.

Burroughs Elementary School in Fresno received more than $2,000 for collecting 18,000 Capri Sun drink pouches to be recycled in TerraCycle's Drink Pouch Brigade contest. The Drink Pouch Brigade program rewards participants for collecting and sending waste to TerraCycle so the waste can be recycled. The program began in September 2013, and participants can win prizes like park benches, recycling bins or even a playground.

Gourdes de compote, instruments d’écriture, capsules de café et dernièrement les mégots de cigarettes… ces objets ont un point commun, ils sont tous recyclables par l’intermédiaire des brigades Terracycle ! Ces programmes permettent de collecter des fonds en échange de déchets qui sont ensuite reversés aux écoles et aux organismes caritatifs choisis par les équipes de récupération. Le principe est d’envoyer un carton de déchets à Terracycle pour le recycler. L’envoi est gratuit ! Vous pouvez rejoindre une des brigades et recycler vos déchets en vous inscrivant sur le site internet. L’école de Vielle Aure le fait déjà ! A l’entrée de l’école, des poubelles étiquetées sont à la disposition des familles pour déposer les gourdes de compote, les recharges de savon, les stylos... Quand ces containers de recyclage sont pleins, des parents volontaires envoient le contenu à TerraCycle. Chaque unité de déchet collecté est convertie en points, puis en centimes d’euros. L’école récolte la somme correspondant aux unités de déchets collectées. En 2013, 50 € ont été attribués à l’école, qui est désormais référencée « Point collecte TerraCycle ».

Recycling, upcycling, reuse: olyan kifejezések, amit egy magát kicsit is trendinek és tudatosnak tartó városlakó biztosan ismer, beszélje a világ bármelyik nyelvét. Az újrahasznosítás legnagyobb úttörői közt tartják számon a magyar származású, USA-ban ténykedő Tom Szaky-t, akinek cége, a TerraCycle a leglehetetlenebb hulladékokat is összegyűjti és újrahasznosítja.

Recycling, upcycling, reuse: olyan kifejezések, amit egy magát kicsit is trendinek és tudatosnak tartó városlakó biztosan ismer, beszélje a világ bármelyik nyelvét. Az újrahasznosítás legnagyobb úttörői közt tartják számon a magyar származású, USA-ban ténykedő Tom Szaky-t, akinek cége, a TerraCycle a leglehetetlenebb hulladékokat is összegyűjti és újrahasznosítja. A kezdeményezésnek köszönhetően eddig több mint másfél millió egységnyi összegyűjtött szemét került jó helyre Magyarországon.

Do you save your chocolate wrappers and toothpaste cartons? Or do they go straight in the bin? TerraCycle is teaming up with more than 200 Kiwi schools to do something productive with household waste. More than 200 New Zealand schools are taking part in a recycling programme instigated by TerraCycle.

(NAPSI)—People around the U.S. are increasingly bringing the “green” back to their neighborhoods. In addition to initiatives like Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) and environmental education through the schools, residents are starting to focus much of their attention on building long-lasting landmarks such as community gardens. The American Community Gardening Association estimates that there are already 18,000 community gardens throughout the country, and for good reason. According to Minnesota nonprofit Green Matters, community gardens decrease crime in urban areas with little vegetation, increase the value of properties in the surrounding area and can help locals save money on food through garden-generated produce. Instead of driving to a distant supermarket for produce or a faraway park for some green space, it’s just a matter of walking over to the nearby garden. The health benefits associated with these gardens show how important open garden spaces can be to otherwise “greenless” urban environments. In 2013, University of Utah researchers found that residents who get involved with community garden projects have recognizably lower body mass indexes than nongardeners, with less chance of being overweight. Not only that, fresh produce from community gardens is less likely to be contaminated with pesticides than other kinds and can be used to teach kids about better nutrition. Organizations such as GrowNYC try to make neighborhood gardens more prevalent. It has already helped establish more than 70 community gardens in New York City, one made with recycled beauty waste with the help of Garnier and recycling company TerraCycle. Initiatives like these not only help establish community gardens in areas with otherwise sparse vegetation, but get the public involved, increase environmental awareness, and educate the community at the same time. Assistant Director Lenny Librizzi shared these tips for getting involved in a community garden. • Look Online—Well-organized community gardens usually have websites or Facebook groups. • Visit—Take a walk through nearby gardens to see which one you’re most drawn to. • Get Your Hands Dirty—Being a member of a community garden is about more than just growing vegetables. All members should expect to help with common areas, composting, watering, or volunteering time.Ê • If At First You Don’t Succeed—Each garden has different rules and management systems. If you don’t feel like you’re gelling with the group, try out another one or consider starting your own. Organizations such as the National Recreation and Park Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture offer grant programs to communities to help fund garden projects. Some companies are also helping. For example, TerraCycle and Garnier will bring another Garnier Green Garden made out of recycled beauty waste to one of five urban areas in the U.S. in a contest decided by a public vote. To vote and learn more, visit www.green.garnierusa.com.

Join us for food and games. Win prizes and hunt for treasure. Use our SCRAPpy spin art machine and contribute to our oversized domino runs, all while supporting the SCRAP DC programs you've come to know and love. Tickets prices are low! -- adults $10, kids $5 (max. $30 per family) More about SCRAP DC: We're a creative reuse nonprofit -- think thrift store aimed at crafty types. After nearly 4 years in DC, we've truly found a home in Brookland, open 5 days a week. This larger space has allowed us to divert 7 tons of materials from local waste streams; offer classes, camps, and parties; and put on seasonal events and art exhibitions. All of this is still 100% volunteer-powered... yet we do have bills to pay. So we're bringing you this fun event to help us keep this good thing goin'! Whether you purchase tickets or make a donation, your tax-deductible contribution will enable current operations to continue running smoothly while we look ahead to add even more. Special Carnival Collection: Bring us clean, dry, empty packaging from your drink pouches and "squeeze-pack" foods for TerraCycle collections! (FYI - You can always drop these off at SCRAP.) - See more at: http://www.weta.org/local/calendar/scrap-dc-summer-carnival-fundraiser-148054#sthash.xvp3NIha.dpuf

Outdoor apparel manufacturer and retailer, The North Face, announced that it has recycled 1.5 million polyethylene bags, or 62,000 pounds of plastic, in the past two years with the aid of upcyclying and recycling company, TerracCycle. The two companies collaborated to create a program called, “The North Face Polybag Brigade,” which was implemented in 25…