Eco-friendly crafts are items made out of recycled materials.  There are fun and unique craft projects to create and earn money for your school or non-profit organization using recycled products. TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/>  is an eco-friendly company that uses certain types of would-be-waste materials to make new products.  Some of the examples of items they create are tote bags that are sewed together and made out of Capri Sun pouches. The great thing is that they receive their waste from schools all across America in a "trash for cash" fundraising program. TerraCycle  <http://www.terracycle.net/> has collected over 50,000 pieces of waste from Milwaukee and kept it out of the landfills.  Over $1,000 has been paid to various Milwaukee schools and non-profit organizations. Milwaukee German Immersion School <http://www2.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/german_imm/>  has collected the most with over 18,000 pieces of waste that would have otherwise ended up in a landfill. Here is a recycled craft pattern that Terracycle <http://www.terracycle.net/>  has given permission to post. To learn more about the program check out www.TerraCycle.net <http://www.TerraCycle.net>  .

As a parent, you'd like your home, community and chidren's schools to be greener. Unfortunately, daily life can get in the way of that. You have limited time and budget in which to make the world around you a more sustainable place.

Families can celebrate the summer '50s style on Saturday at Grounds for Sculpture's Summer Social. Festivities begin at 11:30 a.m. with D.J. Haslett spinning '50s music throughout the day. Parents and children can learn how to cut a rug and show off their swingin' skills during the Fifties Dance Workshop at 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. From 2 to 4 p.m., visitors can make '50s-inspired sculpture influenced by the work of Louise Nevelson at the Fifties Sculpture Workshop. There will also be a Vintage Vinyl Workshop with TerraCycle of Trenton from 2 to 4 p.m., where families can make coasters and photo frames using reclaimed vinyl 45s and LPs. The food gazebo will honor the decade by having desserts and beverages available for purchase. Families can have fun sharing malt shakes and root-beer floats, enjoy orange creamsicles, make their own sundaes, and more. Summer Social, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Grounds for Sculpture, 18 Fairgrounds Rd., Hamilton, N.J. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays; closed Mondays. Admission: $12, $8 for ages 6 to 17, $10 for ages 65 and older. Members and children under 5 are free. Event is free with park admission. Information: 609-586-0616 or www.groundsforsculpture.org.

Every day, Heidi Conley is turning trash into treasures. "I'm crazy about recycling," said the Shirley resident, as she sat on her front porch, surrounded by unique fabrics and tote bags made out of recycled trash. "I buy most of my fabrics and other materials at yard sales, except the big buttons --those are new. I made a bunch of pocketbooks out of dungarees last year," she said. But this year, her passion is making colorful, well-constructed tote bags out of drink pouches. Conley came into the business of recycling trash following a struggling career in home economics. Conley grew up in Lunenburg and went to Atlantic Union College in South Lancaster to study home economics. But by the time she graduated, Proposition 2-1/2, which limits tax increases in Massachusetts' municipalities to 2.5 percent, had gone into effect, and home-economics classes were among the first educational programs to be eliminated from school budgets.

Waste is a relative term. What is waste to one person is a valuable commodity to another. Waste has to be dealt with in a systematic basis. Each component needs to be analyzed for potential value. Today, Kraft Foods recycles nearly 90 percent of its global manufacturing waste. "We're looking to reduce the amount of waste we produce and find value in what we do create," says Yucknut. "That means turning waste into energy and finding partners across the supply chain that can put waste to work." In the United States, Kraft Foods partners with Sonoco (www.sonoco.com), a global provider of packaging products and services, on plant waste reduction across North America, resulting in a number of plants that operate as "zero waste to landfill". The company is taking the same approach to help consumers deal with packaging that isn't recyclable. In 2008, Kraft Foods and its Capri Sun brand started partnering with TerraCycle (www.terracycle.net), an innovative company that reuses product packaging to make new, useful products. Today, Kraft Foods is the largest sponsor of TerraCycle "brigades" -- or collection points -- with more than 30,000 locations and nearly seven million people signed up to collect waste across the United States. The program has been so successful that it's expanded internationally to the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico and Brazil, and there's more in the works.

TerraCycle, CLIF BAR, Kashi, Bear Naked and Odwalla partner to turn granola bar wrappers and bags into eco-friendly products, while earning money for local charities. And because offices and schools produce a tremendous amount of waste, TerraCycle recently partnered with Papermate, Sharpie, 3M, Scotch Tape, Elmer's and more to launch a new program that helps clean up offices and schools nationwide.

TerraCycle is an eco-friendly non-profit organization that recycles would-be rubbish and turns it into a new product. Going green will not only help the Earth, but with this organization it can bring some cash (or coins) to your pocket. Emily Bradford, publicist for TerraCycle explains, “We get the waste items that we use to make our products from individuals and schools all across America in our ‘trash for cash’ fundraising program. We pay any non-profit organization, chosen by the person or team collecting, $0.02 for each piece of waste we receive.”

Shrewsbury - At the end of May 2010, a group of Shrewsbury kids started collecting empty juice pouches and snack bags in an effort to clean up the planet and raise money for Shrewsbury public schools. With the help of the Floral Street School and an eco-friendly company called The Dumpster Divers, they have collected over 2,000 pieces of trash in just over two months. This non-recyclable waste will be sent to another eco-friendly company called Terracycle, which collects all types of trash and uses it to make new creative new products to sell in major stores across the country.

Guest post by: Tiffany Threadgould, TerraCycle’s Chief Designer Upcycle your toothpaste tubes into this fresh bathroom caddy Looking for a refreshing alternative to throwing away your toothpaste tubes? This easy do-it-yourself project upcycles your empty tubes into a simple toothbrush holder. Upcycling materials like these are a great way to reuse without costing a mint. Materials : 5 empty toothpaste tubes scissors ruler clear tape hole punch ribbon or plastic lanyard binder clips

Over the years I have expressed my love of creative recycling. While I do share a large variety of craft projects using trash, no one can certainly make crafts using all of their trash. I discovered a wonderful alternative to crafting with your own trash. You can send it away to be crafted by others. There is an eco-friendly company called TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/>  that uses certain types of would-be-waste materials to make new products. For example, they take Capri Sun pouches or Frito Lay potato chip bags and make tote bags out of them. They get all of the 'trash' to make their products from individuals and schools all across America as part of their 'trash for cash' fundraising program. They pay any non-profit organization, chosen by the person or team sending in the 'trash', $0.02 for each piece of trash they receive. Voila, you can get cash from your trash!