Angela See remembers looking at the back of a Capri-Sun drink box when something caught her attention. It was a logo promoting TerraCycle, a recycling company, which collects food packaging for recycling.

No matter how good your company’s intentions when it comes to recycling as many items as possible to keep them out of landfills, there are some common office items that CANNOT currently be sent to recyclers. Stuff you might find in your desk drawer like pens, highlighter, glue sticks. That’s why TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/> , which makes products made out of things like this, is turning up the heat on what it calls its Office Product Brigades program. The initiative collects at least some of these things, earning your business a bit of a charitable deduction along the way. Here’s the pitch: For every writing implement, tape dispenser or glue bottle you return (regardless of the brand), TerraCycle will donate 2 cents to the charity of your choice. TerraCycle will pick up the shipping costs for boxes of whatever you send in. The clipboard to the right is an example of the sorts of things that TerraCycle makes out of what you send in. (The item in question happens to be made out of old circuit boards.) <http://i.bnet.com/blogs/circuitboardclipboard.jpg> TerraCycle’s partners in the Office Products Brigades program are 3M, Elmer’s Products, Papermaete, Sharpie and Scotch Tape. (Although as I mentioned before, it doesn’t matter what kind of stuff you turn in.) Even BEFORE this program was launched, TerraCycle has collected more than 250,000 pens, markers, glue bottles, spent tape dispensers and such from landfills. Start your day smarter with our daily e-mail newsletter <http://nl.com.com/acct_mgmt.sc?brand=smartplanet> . It's your cheat sheet for good ideas. Get it. <http://nl.com.com/acct_mgmt.sc?brand=smartplanet>

Wie wäre es mit Lautsprecherboxen aus Chipstüten? Oder Klobrillen aus alten Bonbon-Verpackungen? Aus Müll ein neues Produkt machen - mit diesem einfachen Prinzip versucht das junge Unternehmen "Terracycle", den Amerikanern ihre Wegwerf-Mentalität auszutreiben - und startet damit jetzt auch in Deutschland. Miriam Braun stellt die Firma aus New Jersey vor.

EAST AMWELL TWP. — Where most people see trash, the township school’s Environmental Club sees cash. That has won $50,000 for the school, the top prize in a TerraCycle-Walmart contest for New Jersey public schools. It did so by blitzing TerraCycle with 52,640 plastic wrappers and containers during the two-and-a-half-month contest. “You can’t get much greener than this!” exclaimed the club’s adviser, fifth-grade language arts and science teacher Sharon Ernst. It all started in 2008 with Ernst casting about for a way to raise money for an Environmental Club for fourth- and fifth-graders. She wanted to do something applicable to stewardship, which ruled out fundraisers such as bake sales. She considered selling seeds, then a parent mentioned TerraCycle, which pays nonprofit groups that send it hard-to-recycle items for reuse or recycling. Since then, the club has gathered, for instance, more than 30,000 empty Capri Sun containers. The money was spent on plants that allow Ernst to raise Monarch butterflies. She uses the pollinators in her lessons on ecosystems.

EAST AMWELL TWP. — Where most people see trash, the township school’s Environmental Club sees cash. That has won $50,000 for the school, the top prize in a TerraCycle-Walmart contest for New Jersey public schools. It did so by blitzing TerraCycle with 52,640 plastic wrappers and containers during the two-and-a-half-month contest. “You can’t get much greener than this!” exclaimed the club’s adviser, fifth-grade language arts and science teacher Sharon Ernst. It all started in 2008 with Ernst casting about for a way to raise money for an Environmental Club for fourth- and fifth-graders. She wanted to do something applicable to stewardship, which ruled out fundraisers such as bake sales. She considered selling seeds, then a parent mentioned TerraCycle, which pays nonprofit groups that send it hard-to-recycle items for reuse or recycling.

Trash to Treasure partners with the Broward College and TerraCycle  to collect nontraditional items for reuse and recycling.  TerraCycle pays for these materials and Broward College uses the revenue to fund the Michelle Lawless Scholarship which provides tuition for a student majoring in Environmental Science.

In the days leading up to Halloween, American consumers spend nearly $2 billion on candy. By the time the sugar-high wears off, millions of candy wrappers have been needlessly discarded and end up in landfills.  That’s why TerraCycle <http://www.terracycle.net/>  has partnered with Mars/Wrigley and Cadbury to create a second life for those used candy wrappers. This holiday season, conscious consumers are invited to join the Candy Wrapper Brigade by saving the wrapper every time they enjoy a Mars/Wrigley or Cadbury candy product. Collected wrappers are then sent in to the company where they’ll be upcycled into purses, backpacks, coolers, and other innovative products.

Saintly Recyclers mail in their trash. Terracycle.net will recycle (usually postage is free) and donate to charity your candy wrappers, yogurt cups, drink pouches, cookie wrappers, Flavia Freshpacks, Frito-Lay chip bags, energy and granola bar wrappers, Bear Naked wrappers, Kashi packages, cell phones, Huggies and Scott tissue wrappers, Aveno tubes, Scotch tape dispensers, corks, cereal bags, Sharpies and Papermate writing instruments, Neosporin tubes, coffee bags, lunch kits (like Lunchables), Colgate tubes and packaging, Ziploc bags and containers, Inkjet cartridges, and Sprout and Revolutions food containers. Preserveproducts.com recycles your No. 5 plastics (same company that has the receptacles at Whole Foods) and water filters into toothbrushes and razors.

The items will be recycled by Terra Cycle when goals are reached and the program is aiming at collecting more than 500 items from each category each month. Following is the list of items which can be dropped off: Mars or Wrigley brand candy bar wrappers; energy bar wrappers; drink pouches; Nabisco cookie wrappers; Kashi brand wrappers or boxes; toasted chip bags; Bear Naked brand wrappers; wine bottle corks; Aveeno product tubes; Scotch tape dispensers and cores; Frito Lay chip bags; Malt-O-Meal cereal bags or boxes; Elmer's glue; Huggie's brand diaper or pull-up bag packaging; Scott's brand packaging; Neosporin brand packaging; lunchable kits; spread (butter) containers; gum wrappers; cell phones; Colgate brand packaging; yogurt cups; writing instruments; Starbucks coffee bags; plastic bottle lids; and used gift cards