With hundreds of students eating lunch every day, the teachers at Walker Elementary School used to see a lot of used drink pouches get thrown away. Now they earn two cents for every one of those pouches they collect and return to a company called, TerraCycle, who uses their non-recyclable waste to make affordable, eco-friendly products. This school year, the enthusiastic students at Walker have diverted nearly 4,000 pieces of waste from going into the landfills. “I have always been a big advocate of recycling and think this program is great.” said Lois Bradley, the P.E. teacher who signed the school up for the program. “I teach at a K-1 school that has snack each day. As part of our policy individually wrapped items are required for parents to send in for snack. I noticed that a lot of students were drinking Capri Sun drinks, and decided to sign up for the drink brigade.”
Short answer? They have to.
Backstory: Albe Zakes from TerraCycle contacted me the other day. He was a show guest on Mrs. Green a long time ago. The TerraCycle story is a great one – young minds creating something from worm poop and making a successful business out it. He wanted me to help spread the word that that Walmart was going to carry 60 of their products. Big news indeed and the topic of another blog.
It made me take the time to really think about the corporate giant that lots of people love to hate vs. the small business owners who are the backbone of our country – thus the term I stole from Michael Shuman – the Small Marts of the world. Can they coexist?
"At
TerraCycle, everything is made from garbage, and garbage is free." says owner Tom Szaky. His green company makes usable products from throwaways and worse...that stinky garbage no one wants to have around.
It started from a college project that mushroomed into a viable green business for the 21st century, now worth $7.45 million. Not bad for garbage!
Opening last week in NYC, TerraCycle has created a pop-up retail space filled with products made from reclaimed waste materials. It is the worlds largest green pop-up store to date. The store sells NJ-based TerraCycle’s full line of over 100 products made from recycled and reclaimed materials such as chip bags, food wrappers, yogurt cups, glue bottles and writing instruments. The store also sells their plant and garden supplies including plant food made from worm poop. All the fixtures in the store are made from found items like old doors, fire extinguishers, and salvaged seating.
Have you heard of
Terracycle yet? This company is so COOL! They take used trash in the form of drink pouches, toothpaste tubes, and sunscreen tubes and recycle them into great products like tote bags, cork boards and laptop cases. Isn't this a basic idea of going green???? There is a 2nd (or 3rd, 4th or 5th) life in almost everything we use! This company is such an awesome way to introduce this process to kids too! They drink a juice pouch and then use a tote bag made from juice pouches to go to school, the pool or where ever!
Terracycle products are already sold in stores such as The Home Depot, Target, and even some Whole Foods, but this “trash-to-treasure” company has teamed up with Walmart to sell over 60 products in every Walmart store across the country for the month of April (from the 5th to the 29th). In order to boost consumers’ awareness of environmental issues, TerraCycle products are being sold right next to the items from which they were made. So that means tote bags made out of candy wrappers will be sold right next to the candy, and the backpack made out of drink pouches will be sold right next to the drinks themselves.
A few months back here at Bay Area Bags, I featured billboard bags from terracyle.net and I bet most of us were amazed of how creative these people are. And for the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, again they are here to surprises us with a lot of new releases that people from all ages would enjoy.
all products will be co-displayed with the original products from which they are made. So notebooks, pencil cases and lunch boxes made from Mars candy wrappers will be displayed with bars of the popular candies and backpacks made from Capri Sun drink pouches will be displayed with boxes of Capri Sun juice! The items are made from the same wrappers that will cover the very food they may hold. All come with trim and handles which match the original logos product. These bags are absolutely as fun and fashionable as they are eco-friendly! Walmart has agreed to carry TerraCycle products in their seasonal section ONLY for the month of April. So we got to hurry and check them out. Visit terracycle.net for complete details.
If you have been a reader of mine since the early days you may remember my love of
TerraCycle. If not, feel free to read some of my
past posts about this great company. And despite the foul associations that are sometimes given to Wal-Mart it is our closest store for those quick items that we all need. Now if you mix TerraCycle and Wal-Mart together and what do you get?
Great NEW TerraCycle products that can ONLY be found at EVERY Wal-Mart in the United States ONLY in April in honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day! Can you hear me screaming here people? This is fabulous!
Starting April 5th, and for a limited time only during April, nearly 60 TerraCycle products will be available in every Walmart across the country in honor of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day. Snazzy bags, totes, folders, books, even kites!
