TerraCycle has made a name for itself by turning landfill-bound objects into one-of-a-kind accessories, and its newest line of bags is no different. Stitched together from decommissioned U.S. Postal Service cotton-canvas mail sacks, each upcycled pouch and tote features markings from the original carryall, along with distressing, light fraying, and patch marks from years of service. Plus, all iPad cases are lined remnant Ultrasuede scraps—all the better to keep your precious cargo safe through rain, sleet, and gloom of night.

Tara Lynn-Perez, math teacher at The Henderson International School, is focused on a lot of things. Multiplication tables, long division, fractions – the usual stuff. But what you might not know is Tara’s other passion: to “eliminate the idea of waste.” She’s an avid proponent of a website/program called TerraCycle, an international recycling system for previously non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste, and she’s gotten the kids at her school hooked on the idea!   Here’s how it works… Local programs, called Brigades, send TerraCycle their waste. TerraCycle then converts the collected waste into a wide variety of products and materials. The Brigades, then, receive points based on the number of items (waste) that they send in (2 points per item). The organization has more than 20 million people collecting waste in over 20 countries, and TerraCycle has diverted billions of units of waste and used them to create over 1,500 different products available at major retailers ranging from Walmart to Whole Foods Market.

Como ya os contábamos en un post anterior ( http://unolec.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/el-medio-ambiente-otro-motivo-para-dejar-el-tabaco/ ) cada año terminan en el suelo cerca de 4.5 billones de colillas, lo que supone una contaminación anual de más de más de 840.000 toneladas.

En los ceniceros situados en las puertas de bares y oficinas se acumulan gran cantidad de colillas y de ceniza. Habitualmente, estos residuos acaban en vertederos convencionales, o bien son incinerados, con la correspondiente liberación de CO₂ a la atmósfera. Sin embargo, los restos de los cigarrillos se pueden reciclar y obtener así numerosos beneficios medioambientales.

Asimismo, la Escuela Infantil colocará también otros contenedores destinados al depósito de material de escritura gastado, como bolígrafos, rotuladores, portaminas, subrayadores, y correctores. El material recolectado se entregará a Terracycle, empresa que lo utiliza para fabricar otros productos, como bancos de jardín, regaderas o papeleras.