Why aren’t you doing anything eco with the packaging [the wrappers or the cardboard display boxes]?

Well, first of all, the packaging foil—what the condom is actually in—is regulated by FDA. You can’t do anything green there, really.

You could work with Terracycle to collect condom foil wrappers. Foil is valuable resource, totally recyclable or reusable, terracycle could make backpacks out of condoms. Don’t tell me with your awesome design some teenage punks wouldn’t love toting a condom backpack to school, pissing off the teachers. Plus, it’s free marketing.

The second grade students at Bonner Elementary School in Phoebe Bradberry, Amanda Kirkman, Wendy Bradberry, and Sloan Dills’ classes recently worked hard to earn money for the Summerville Miracle League. They found an awesome company named Terracycle that reuses empty juice pouches and chip bags to create new school supplies such as pencil pouches, book bags, lunch boxes, and folders. Juice pouches are made out of aluminum and pouches and chip bags are laminated with a plastic layer, which make them non-recyclable. This program still benefits the earth because it is preventing these items from piling up in the landfills.

I always appreciate a designer who aims to create more eco-friendly accessories. After some time admiring these green handbags, I finally took one for a spin on Saturday. Yak Pak teamed up with recycling giant TerraCycle to craft this DEN Tote from billboards destined for landfill. The glossy fabric feels incredibly strong and it's water resistant to boot. The fairly plain colors aren't as exciting as some recycled billboard bags I've seen, although with one side white and the other blue I suppose I could treat this as two bags in one! It's important to remember that these bags were made from real billboards. That means no two are the same, and some have features that girls may regard as flaws. Mine has a few black marks on the blue side and some lighter stains on the white. Personally I think the imperfections add character, reminding us of the bag's history, but some may disagree.

Recycling in the workplace goes beyond a bin for unused paper and containers for aluminum cans and empty bottles of water. There are also pens, markers, tape dispensers and even cell phones that can be recycled. These items may not be the first things that come to mind when thinking of office recyclables, but they can definitely be put to good use at the end of their life. One company is working to take these types of products and upcycle them into new items: TerraCycle. TerraCycle works in a series of brigades. These brigades are designed to collect items that aren’t traditionally recycled and then upcycle them into new consumer goods. In addition to keeping these products out of landfills, the brigades also serve as fundraising tools for schools, churches and nonprofit organizations.

When Tom Szaky sees a discarded juice pouch, he doesn't see garbabe; he sees a pencil case. An old vinyl LP cries out for new life as a clock. Candy wrappers? An awesome kite. But these are not the musings of an idealistic tree hugger. For the 28-year-old CEO of Trenton, New Jersey-based TerraCycle, they're a revenue model.

Likewise, sustainability keeps growing in the packaging world. I think the packaging question of the century is: How can we eliminate, or at least reduce, the amount of packaging going into landfills? When Terracycle started making backpacks and clipboards out of used juice boxes and chip bags in 2001, it was one of the first creative ways to “upcycle” waste and keep it out of landfills. And the solutions are likely only going to get more innovative. This year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver featured medals made from old computers and TVs. Athletes at this summer’s World Cup will be wearing jerseys made from recycled plastic bottles. And Ecovative Design has created a material made from mushrooms that can replace polystyrene in product packaging. Innovations like these are giving us a glimpse into the future. Imagine a world where you can’t find plastic bottles in a landfill. Instead, you’ll find them in the fabric of your clothes. Or picture wearing jewelry with a new type of gemstone made from outdated electronics.

ROANOKE RAPIDS — Making moves to enrich the environment and their education is what some 4th graders at Belmont Elementary School in Roanoke Rapids have been up to lately. Working with a company called TerraCycle, the Belmont students help turn some of their trash into useful products and help raise money for a program bringing them closer to the environment their recycling efforts help protect. “It’s teaching them a lot about recycling,” said Heather Karns, a teacher involved in the program at Belmont. “After their soccer games, the kids will bring back a pile of the Capri-Sun pouches and instead of throwing them out, they bring them in for recycling.”

Fourth-grade teacher Stephanie Gawbdzinski’s worried that she’s going to be asked how to spell her last name. But Gawbdzinski had an easier task on Tuesday: describing how Thomas Obbink, her student at Sunrise Elementary, came up with a plan that would save the environment and earn money for the school. “Thomas is our class recycling expert,” she said. The student hates to see anything thrown out that might be recycled or put to work with a new use, Gawbdzinski says. An empty Kleenex box in the trash is likely to be retrieved and turned into an impromptu pencil box.

TerraCycle's goal is singular: To solve the problem of waste. We have not taken positions on the products that we collect, similar to how recycling companies accept products of any brand that fit their capacity to recycle. But here's where it gets interesting—We've been approached by a tobacco company to collect and turn cigarette butts into new eco-friendly products. What do you think? Is doing business with a cigarette company any different than any of the other companies whose waste we collect? Or is this somehow different? If so, how?