Stadium and venue owners and managers are constantly on the look out for new ways to make their facilities cleaner, more efficient and more environmentally-friendly. With the help of recycling pioneer TerraCycle, facility managers across the US can now recycle their cigarette waste. Instead of the butts going to landfill, TerraCycle composts the paper and leftover tobacco and recycles the filters into plastic for industrial uses, such as pallets. According to Keep America Beautiful, cigarette butts are the most frequently littered waste item. 65% of cigarette waste is disposed of improperly and accounts for 30% of litter at “transition points” where smokers must discontinue smoking before proceeding. Contrary to popular belief, cigarette butts are not biodegradable. To address the desire to rid facility grounds of cigarette waste in an environmentally-responsible way, the Nashville Predators and Bridgestone Arena have recently joined TerraCycle’s Cigarette Waste Brigade^®. Chris Parker, Executive Vice President of the Predators, said he was “proud of both the building and the community for being one of the first organisations to actively rid its venue of cigarette waste”. Parker added that he “hopes this movement catches on with other stadiums”.   Arena staff collect the discarded cigarette butts on the sidewalks outside of the Arena and in plaza areas where smoking is permitted following Predators home games and Bridgestone Arena concerts. With postage paid by TerraCycle, the boxes of butts are then shipped to a plant in New Jersey for recycling. Managers looking for additional ways to reduce waste can also utilise TerraCycle’s new Zero Waste Boxes. These boxes enable stadiums and venues to recycle everything from cleaning supplies, plastic cups, fluorescent light bulbs, Styrofoam^® and plastic cups, plates and utensils, and chewed gum. All Zero Waste Boxes can be purchased at zerowasteboxes.terracycle.com for a variety of prices. When a box is full, it is simply shipped to TerraCycle for processing. Since 2007, TerraCycle has used innovative recycling processes to repurpose otherwise landfill-bound consumer packaging waste into useful materials and products, such as recycled plastic lumber, industrial shipping pallets, and park benches. Between the Cigarette Waste Brigade and Zero Waste Boxes, there are almost no limits to what can be recycled.

TerraCycle ist ein mittlerweile weltweit aktives Recycling- und Upcycling-Unternehmen, das schwer recycelbare Verpackungen und Produkte, wie z.B. Zigarettenstummel, Zahnpflegeartikel, Kugelschreiber, Einmalhandschuhe etc. sammelt und daraus neue, umweltfreundliche Produkte herstellt.

Unsere Initiative ist Teil eines Recycling-Programms für leere Stifte, die durch den Stiftehersteller BIC und das Recycling-Unternehmen TerraCycle ermöglicht wird.

A fesztiválok napjainkban óriási népszerűségnek örvendenek. Ez alatt általában zenés-bulizós összejöveteleket értünk, de akad néhány ettől eltérő kivétel is. Korábban bemutattam a Hello Wood elnevezésűt, most pedig szeretném, ha megismernétek az Everness Fesztivált!

Önfenntartó fesztiválhelyszín? Európa első újrahasznosító fesztiválja? Élőben működő és látható napenergia hasznosító rendszer és elektromos autók? Szolárzuhanyzó, szolárfőző és dinamikus napszobor építés? Családbarát fesztivál? Üdvözlünk egy új tudatosság ünnepén!

Harmadik éve járunk ki a Gyerek Szigetre és végre eljutottunk oda, hogy csupa élvezet: tudjuk, mire számíthatunk, megbeszéljük, hogy  miért is megyünk ki, mára klassz időtöltés lett. Szeretünk valamit összerakni, mondjuk alkotni vagy legalábbis kísérletezni, és mivel ott sok ilyen lehetőség van, éltünk vele. Beszámoló következik, de azért annyi röviden előre is mondanék, hogy mindenképp érdemes kimenni.

TRENTON, N.J., (March 19, 2014) – Today, TerraCycle® announced its  Recycled Playground Challenge  - a new initiative in partnership with Colgate, the global oral care leader, and ShopRite, which has more than 250 stores in the Northeast - to help encourage healthy smiles and environments among school children and consumers. Beginning now through June 30, schools located throughout New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut and Maryland are eligible to compete for a new playground made completely of recycled material by joining TerraCycle’s Oral Care Brigade®  program. Through the Oral Care Brigade, a free recycling program run by Colgate and TerraCycle, schools will earn one ‘Playground Credit’ for each shipment of empty toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, and floss containers sent to TerraCycle.  Schools can earn additional Playground Credits by encouraging parents and teachers to vote online by logging onto www.terracycle.com/colgateshopriteplayground. “Colgate is committed to contributing to our communities and respecting the environment,” said Justin Skala, President, North America and Global Sustainability, Colgate-Palmolive. “Programs like the Colgate® Oral Care Brigade™ and Recycled Playground Challenge offer us an innovative way to reinforce these commitments and for consumers to positively impact the environment by repurposing their Colgate® oral care products.” The winning school with the most Playground Credits will be announced by July 18, 2014 and the playground will be installed during the 2014/2015 back-to-school season.  The first runner-up school will win 500 upcycled tote bags, 500 upcycled pencil cases, 500 upcycled pens and a $750 ShopRite® gift certificate.  The second and third runner-up schools will win 250 upcycled tote bags, 250 upcycled pens and a $500 and $250 gift certificate, respectively.  Finally, five honorable mention participants will win 250 upcycled pens and $150 ShopRite® gift cards. In addition to donating gift certificates for the runner-up schools, ShopRite is also encouraging community participation in the contest with displays throughout its stores. “ShopRite has a long history of caring for the communities it serves,” said Karen Meleta, Vice President of Consumer and Corporate Communications for ShopRite. “This program is a fun way to engage our customers in this commitment and to bring to light the importance of recycling and preserving our resources for generations to come.” All participants in the Colgate® Oral Care Brigade™ program are making a difference for the environment and their community.  The Brigade initiative is an ongoing activity open to any individual, family, school or community group.  For each piece of waste sent in using a pre-paid shipping label, participants earn money toward donations to the school or charity of their choice. “At TerraCycle, collecting the oral care waste is only half of the story,” explained Tom Szaky, TerraCycle Founder and CEO.  “The real magic happens when our partners choose to reuse the waste in a way that has a lasting benefit a community, like Colgate and ShopRite have done with these playgrounds.” For instructions on how to participate in the Recycled Playground Challenge, please visit www.terracycle.com/colgateshopriteplayground or your local ShopRite retailer. To learn more about the Colgate® Oral Care Brigade™ program and to sign up, please visit www.terracycle.com/colgate.

In our free-market, capitalist economy, it’s only natural that there will be large companies and small companies. Furthermore, bigger companies will always tend to over-shadow the smaller ones, and are often less concerned with the environmental and social effects of their business models. With fewer resources available, it’s especially difficult for smaller companies to get the same exposure and create the same impacts that corporate giants are capable of. One way for non-profits and start-up companies to be heard is to partner with other small companies that share the same values and mission. By working together, they can better-amplify their voices, and grow their potential to influence for good. As a ten-year veteran in the world of eco-entrepreneurship, I am convinced that social enterprises and non-profits must work together if we want to ‘swim with the sharks.’ These types of partnerships not only benefit the companies involved, but they also reinforce and benefit their goals. This is the case with the recent partnership between Recycle Across America, Participant Media and TerraCycle. Through our partnership, we hope to create a better environment. Did you know that only 34.5% of waste generated in the US is recycled or composted? Recycle Across America (RAA) is trying to change that. RAA is a non-profit dedicated to streamlining recycling labels across the country. Recycling labels can be complicated and they’re not uniform across the US. RAA’s goal is to implement simple recycling labels so that everyone will know how to recycle properly, hopefully raising the annual recycling rate in the process. If there were standardized labels on all recycling bins, recycling could be increased by more than 50%. If the recycling level in the US could reach 75%, it would create 1.5 million new jobs and it would have the same effect as removing 50 million cars from the road each year. Participant Media is a widely-respected entertainment company, responsible for producing movies like An Inconvenient Truth, Super Size Me, and Food, Inc. The company’s stated mission is to focus on creating movies and television shows that are socially aware and politically active. To that end, their new TV channel, Pivot, broadcasts shows and movies that have social messages revolving around the economy, equality and the environment, just to name a few. Pivot TV is committed to producing shows with a social message that make people think. This is why Pivot TV is launching an unscripted reality show called “Human Resources,” which will follow the employees of TerraCycle and their efforts to change people’s opinions on recycling waste. For those unfamiliar with TerraCycle’s business model, we collect waste that can’t typically be recycled by your local municipality, and then recycle or upcycle that material into useful products. You receive points for your collected waste, which can then be turned into monetary donations for the charity of your choice. By partnering with RAA and Pivot TV, all three companies are strengthened in their goals and initiatives. Through our partnership, RAA, Pivot TV and TerraCycle have created the Recycle Right campaign. Recycle Right focuses on transforming recycling as we know it. Through “Human Resources,” viewers will be able to see that it’s possible to recycle almost anything, and the show will include PSAs and commercials to create awareness around proper recycling techniques. TerraCycle and RAA show people how to recycle more effectively, while Pivot TV provides the platform, the reach, and the ability to get this valuable information to millions of consumers. By combining our strengths, TerraCycle, RAA and Pivot TV will bring more awareness to reshaping recycling and bettering the environment. Although this is only one partnership hoping to better the environment, it is still better than no initiative at all. After all, it takes a planet to save a planet, and you always have to start somewhere.

Ähnlich wie "normale" Gründer sind nachhaltigkeitsorientierte Gründer grundverschieden: Da sind die Technikfreaks wie AO Terra aus Dresden, die mit der Abwärme von Servern ganze Häuser heizen. Da sind die sozial Veranlagten wie das junge Fairtrade-Label "fairliebt in Jyothi", das arbeitslosen Inderinnen in Kooperation mit einer NGO vor Ort das Nähen beibringt. Da sind die Wiederverwertungs-Fans wie das millionenschwere Eco-Business TerraCycle, das mit Hilfe von Hard- und Software aus Müll Verkaufsschlager macht: stylische Blumentöpfe aus alten Computern, Lautsprecher aus Tetrapaks, Taschen aus Altpapier.