Starting April 5th, and for a limited time only during the month of April, about 60 TerraCycle items, including a bunch of brand new things never seen before, will be available in every single Wal-Mart across the country (3,500 locations) in honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day this year. The products will be sold right next to the original items they are made from. Kites made from Cheetos wrappers will be sold with bags of Frito-Lay chips and backpacks made from drink pouches will be sold next to boxes of Capri Sun. This will help educate consumers about resource conservation and give millions of students who participate in TerraCycle’s Brigades, an opportunity to see their collection efforts come to life!

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.  This will include lots of brand new items, which you can look at right now by reading this blog post.

TerraCycle has tons of different brigades for all types of “garbage”. They collect juice pouches, candy wrappers, chips bags, yogurt cups and wine corks just to name a very few. All you have to do is go to their web site and sign-up for one of the brigades and you’re on your way. But what’s great is that it doesn’t just benefit TerraCycle (lots of free materials) it also benefits you, or more specifically, your organization. TerraCycle donates 2 cents per item back to the non-profit or school of your choice.

In more efforts to divert trash from Conway’s city landfill, Julia Lee Moore elementary has enrolled in a program to reuse non-recyclables to create new, functional products — and make a little money while they are at it. Brigades, a nationwide program, pays schools and non-profit organizations 2 cents per juice pouch, which parents opt for in convenience, and turns them into a range of upcycled products. Upcycling is the process in which disposable or discarded items are repurposed to make them valuable or useful. TerraCycle’s hope is that with the program, waste will be eliminated and according to their Web site, used to create innovative products from “materials others deem garbage.”

Looking for some spare change? With the many companies cropping up that offer cash or services in exchange for your used goods, it’s time to start thinking of recycling as the new couch cushions. With a little effort, everything from books to cookie wrappers can be traded in for goods or cash. Here are several ideas to help you responsibly recycle and make a little money at the same time.

During the StartingBloc Institute, one of the speakers we had the privilege of listening to was Tom Szaky, founder of TerraCycle. TerraCycle is a company that collects traditionally non-recyclable waste from people all across the country by paying a non-profit of the collecting person’s choice, 2 cents for each piece they collect and mail to the company. TerraCycle then uses the waste it receives from its Brigade members to make hundreds of eco-friendly products, i.e. “upcycling” the collected trash. Starting today, and until April 29th, about 60 “upcycled” TerraCycle items, including a bunch of brand new things never seen before, will be available in every single Wal-Mart across the country (3,500 locations) in honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day this year. The TerraCycle products will be sold right next to the original items they are made from. Kites made from Cheetos wrappers will be sold with bags of Frito-Lay chips and backpacks made from drink pouches will be sold next to boxes of Capri Sun, with the goal of helping educate consumers about resource conservation.

Q: Although I'm no luddite, I prefer to communicate the old fashioned way: pen and paper. Sure, I have an e-mail account (not AOL, thank you very much) and all that jazz, but when it comes to penning missives, making lists and other things that could be done on a PC, I enjoy utilizing the ancient art of writing by hand. I've long been using recycled content paper products - from fancy stationery to my daily journal to Post-it Notes - but never really thought about greening one rather important thing: my pens. I've amassed quite the collection of plastic pens of the ballpoint variety - nothing too fancy - and subsequently chuck a lot in the trash when the ink runs out. Are there any environmental stats about pen waste? And what are pen manufacturers doing to provide alternatives to landfill-clogging writing instruments?

A whole bunch of brand new TerraCycle items will be available, during April for a limited time only, at every single Walmart across the country. Starting April 5th, nearly 60 TerraCycle products will be sold right next to the original items they were made from. Cheetos kites and tote bags made from Frito-Lay wrappers will be sold with bags of Frito-Lay chips, while notebooks and purses made out of skittles and M&M wrappers will be sold right next to bags of Mars Candy!

Q: Although I’m no luddite, I prefer to communicate the old fashioned way: pen and paper. Sure, I have an e-mail account (not AOL, thank you very much) and all that jazz, but when it comes to penning missives, making lists and other things that could be done on a PC, I enjoy utilizing the ancient art of writing by hand. I’ve long been using recycled content paper products — from fancy stationery to my daily journal to Post-it Notes — but never really thought about greening one rather important thing: my pens. I’ve amassed quite the collection of plastic pens of the ballpoint variety — nothing too fancy — and subsequently chuck a lot in the trash when the ink runs out. Are there any environmental stats about pen waste? And what are pen manufacturers doing to provide alternatives to landfill-clogging writing instruments?

What have juice, cookies, or chips done for your schools, recently? Well, if your kids go to Garland Elementary, over the last year, the Parent Teacher Association has been collecting these empty bags, as well as Malt-O-Meal cereal bags, to fund projects like field trips. Melissa Skinner, this year’s Garland PTA president-elect, set up the recycling program after hearing about TerraCycle on a T.V. show highlighting Park City students who were recycling using a company based in Trenton, N.J. Skinner chose to focus on the following items: Nabisco cookie wrappers, Capri or Kool-Aid pouches, Frito-Lay chips bags and Malt-O-Meal cereal bags. So far, the school has collected 2,211 chip bags, 272 cookie wrappers, 2,222 drink pouches and after just starting the cereal bags in January, they have had 80 cereal bags. The total of $95.70 may not seem like much, but Skinner just sent another batch of bags to the company and will see another check at the end of April. Plus, she said TerraCycle pays the shipping expense. Skinner wants to get the word out, that anyone is encouraged to donate their used wrappers from these companies to Garland Elementary.