With kindergarten teacher Karen Dunlap as their leader, the Norristown school collects drink pouches, chip bags and cookie wrappers — hard-to-recycle waste — and sends them away to be upcycled into eco-friendly products. Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials, and it’s what the Trenton, N.J.-based company TerraCycle does with candy wrappers, energy bar wrappers and other consumer products, while at the same time paying the schools and charitable organizations that collect the used packaging.

With kindergarten teacher Karen Dunlap as their leader, the Norristown school collects drink pouches, chip bags and cookie wrappers — hard-to-recycle waste — and sends them away to be upcycled into eco-friendly products. Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials, and it’s what the Trenton, N.J.-based company TerraCycle does with candy wrappers, energy bar wrappers and other consumer products, while at the same time paying the schools and charitable organizations that collect the used packaging.

With kindergarten teacher Karen Dunlap as their leader, the Norristown school collects drink pouches, chip bags and cookie wrappers — hard-to-recycle waste — and sends them away to be upcycled into eco-friendly products. Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials, and it’s what the Trenton, N.J.-based company TerraCycle does with candy wrappers, energy bar wrappers and other consumer products, while at the same time paying the schools and charitable organizations that collect the used packaging.

Tom Szaky's ambitions to turn one of America's fastest-growing private companies into a multi-billion dollar global empire didn't have glamorous beginnings. Szaky's Trenton-based TerraCycle got off the ground eight years ago out of a Princeton University student business plan contest. Szaky's idea was to establish a company that would transform biodegradable waste into high-yield fertilizer made from worm poop. Szaky, 28, drew his inspiration for the fertilizer plan from the success he and some of his Canadian high school buddies had in growing robust plants in fertilizer made from worm poop. He decided to drop out of Princeton during his sophomore year to give his full attention to the waste-into-fertilizer business he dubbed TerraCycle. Today, the company that Szaky founded in 2002 with a $20,000 machine for feeding organic waste to millions of little worms that would turn that waste into fertilizer has moved well beyond being merely a fertilizer-specialty manufacturer. It is a high-profile player in a niche corner of the recycling market known as "upcycling," in which used materials such as aluminum drink pouches, plastic soda bottles and plastic food wrappers are collected and transformed for use in new products without being broken down into their raw material components.

TerraCycle, CLIF BAR, Kashi, Bear Naked and Odwalla partner to turn granola bar wrappers and bags into eco-friendly products, while earning money for local charities. And because offices and schools produce a tremendous amount of waste, TerraCycle recently partnered with Papermate, Sharpie, 3M, Scotch Tape, Elmer's and more to launch a new program that helps clean up offices and schools nationwide.

TerraCycle Makes Strides with Brigades Most outdoor enthusiasts enjoy energy bars, granola, or trail mix before, during and after they hit the trails, streams and lakes. They already stash the leftover wrappers in pockets and backpacks to properly discard the used packaging when they return home. Now some of the industry's most trusted names, CLIF BAR, Kashi, Bear Naked and Odwalla, are rewarding people's efforts by creating a program that turns those wrappers and bags into eco-friendly products, while earning money for local charities. The four leading brands sponsor TerraCycle "Brigades" or free collection programs that contribute two cents to a school or charity for every energy bar wrapper, granola bag, or Kashi packaging returned. In under a year, the programs have helped keep over a million and a half wrappers out of landfills -- TerraCycle collects the used packaging and other hard to recycle material and turns it into new products ranging from shower curtains to backpacks.

TerraCycle has introduced new Office Product Brigades, open to any supplier or consumer of office supplies and modeled after TerraCycle’s programs for schools that pay for the collection of drink pouches, yogurt cups and chip bags. These new programs, which collect any writing instrument, tape dispenser or glue product regardless of brand, were founded in response to the growing need to reduce the amount of useful materials going to landfill.