MEXICO CITY, Aug 2, 2010  (IPS) - Women's laughter fills the rectangular room on the ground floor of a building that houses a school for 250 local children, on the southern edge of Mexico City's sprawling metropolitan area. The room seems too small to contain the two dozen women busy cutting and folding strips of plastic laminated paper recovered from discarded food wrappers. The strips will later be plaited using a traditional palm-leaf weaving technique passed down by the Nahua people. The women run a craft centre that is part of the local cooperative "Mitz" (a Nahuatl word that means "For you"), where they use recycled material to make bags, coin purses, date books, picture frames, Christmas decorations and accessories, having achieved a monthly production of about 3,000 craft items.

Recycle and Earn Did you know billions of drink pouches are thrown out each year? TerraCycle collects these discarded pouches and turns them into cool products. Sponsored by the drink pouch makers themselves (CapriSun and Kool-Aid) these groovy pencil case holders will be the talk at the lunch table. You can get your school involved too. Collect drink pouches, turn them in and collect cash for your school. Go to www.terracycle.net and find out more. Pencil cases starting at $2. (TerraCycle makes lunch boxes too. See page XXX)

Jodi says, "As a pay-it-forward(er) I try and buy items I know I can give back with. For example Box Top all you do is clip the top and turn it in. Your school gets $.10 back for each one. You can also turn in your Sunny Delight Labels to earn points towards free books. There is also a program called Terracycle that donates to your school. Capri sun is one of the products."

Other coffee companies are also wrestling with the waste issue. Businesses that use Flavia pods, which is made by Mars, are able to ship the used pods to the New Jersey company TerraCycle, which will compost the coffee or tea and reuse the plastic in products like pavers and fencing, a TerraCycle spokesman, Albe Zakes said. More than 2.5 million Flavia packs in the United States have been recycled in the last year. Mars sells a billion drinks a year in 35,000 workplaces worldwide. In Britain, Mr. Zakes said, TerraCycle has processed more than 800,000 coffee discs from Kraft’s Tassimo single-serve system. The results are being evaluated for possible application in the United States, a Kraft spokeswoman, Bridget MacConnell, said. Kraft and Mars are paying for collecting the pods, including shipping costs to TerraCycle.

<http://www.terracycle.net/brigades/17-AVEENO-Beauty-Brigade> Now every time you finish an AVEENO product you can save the tube and send it in to TerraCycle - who will upcycle the tube into fun new innovative products, such as sunglasses cases. For each approved tube received, AVEENO will donate $.02 to the non-profit or school of your choice. Sign up for the free program at www.terracycle.net/brigades <http://www.terracycle.net/brigades> .

I love school supplies! But before my mom and I go shopping for them, we think of the environment, and I hope you will too. First, check your school supply list carefully: You’ll find that you have lots of things already in your house from last year, like crayons, scissors, or leftover glue sticks. Then plan for the new stuff! This year, let’s all try to buy at least one eco-friendly school supply. You can find them at most of the big stores like Target and Wal-Mart and also online at theultimategreenstore.com. What’s the one green thing you bought or are planning to buy for this school year? Let me know and you’ll be entered to win one of two eco-friendly school supply kits from our friends at TerraCycle!

Made from up-cycled juice pouches, the Terracycle lunch bag is an unusual twist on the traditional insulated lunch box. TerraCycle diverts tons of waste juice pouches annually and donates 2 cents to a charity or nonprofit for each pouch collected. www.terracycle.net.

I t’s back-to-school time and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all the shopping you have to do, especially if you want to be eco- friendly. you needn’t worry. Companies like TerraCycle are making back-to-school shopping and green living compatible and easy.

Students from Scott Elementary School aren't only going green, they're getting green. As if the need to take care of the planet isn't enough, a New Jersey-based company is willing to pay cash for the kids' trash. "So many recyclable and reusable products are sent to landfills, and we are running out of space for our garbage," said Teri Lodesky, teacher and coordinator of Scott Elementary School's environmental club. "A bonus of the program is that TerraCycle pays two cents for every item collected." Founded in 2001, TerraCycle is one of the fastest-growing eco-friendly manufacturers in the world. Its free national collection program pays not-for-profit organizations and schools for their non-recyclable waste materials, like lunch staples Capri Sun drink pouches and Frito-Lay chip bags.