WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- We all know that recycling our paper, plastic, and glass is important for the enviornment. But what if I told you that you that recycling certain items could earn you some cold hard cash? Investopedia gives us three things that you can recycle for cash back or a tax deduction: 1. Gift Cards.  We all have received that gift card for a holiday gift or birthday present that we feel like we will never use. If you have one of these lying around the house, Gift Card Rescue is a service that will take your unused gift card and send you a check for it. If you have a gift card that you have used up or it's outdated gift card, Gift Card Recycler will take those and give you points for the number of cards you send in. 2. Cooking Oil.  It may seem odd, but there are several recycling centers, bio-diesel firms, and individuals that will pay you for your used cooking oil. Prices range from 33 cents to 66 cents a gallon. 3. Trash. TerraCycle is a company that will pay you for your garbage. A program that works best with schools of non-profit organizations, TerraCycle will donate money to your cause for every piece of trash you send the organization, and they will even pay for shipping. We're talking candy wrappers, juice boxes, ink jet containers, old cameras -- that kind of thing.

TerraCycle makes affordable, eco-friendly products from a wide range of different non-recyclable waste materials. Capri Sun – Honest Kids juice pouches can be recycled by Terracycle as can Candy Wrappers, Starbucks Coffee bags, Zip Loc Bags, pens, Cookie Wrappers, Colgate toothpaste, and more. Yes this is more involved, so try to get your local community or school involved.

Yesterday my son threw away a ketchup bottle and a toothpaste tube. The ketchup bottle had another serving it it, about 1 1/2 Tablespoons. I grabbed it and turned it upside down on the counter and used the rest last night. I took the toothpaste tube and showed him how much product was being thrown away. Americans throw away 1 BILLION toothpaste tubes a year, along with shampoo, conditioner, and lotion bottles. On average, they leave 10% of the product in them. Not only does this waste the earths resources, it wastes your money!

Schools create quite a lot of waste products that is thoughtlessly gotten rid of when it can be recycled. An exceptional recycling strategy labeled as TerraCycle has brought about a huge change in the recycling behavior of schools in the United States. This program takes the initiative to recover food packaging goods that are difficult to recycle and in addition pays schools for their hard work. As per a MichigansThumb.com report, the program awards points to schools dependant upon the quantity of recyclable goods delivered to TerraCycle. The arrival of single-serve food products has inflated the quantity of disposable waste and led to a rising pile of harmful waste material in landfills.

It’s not often that an educator finds inspiration on the back of a juice box, but that’s what happened to Tim Sarych. Sarych is a special education management aid at the Mille Lacs Academy School. Sarych read about the TerraCycle, a recycling program for schools, on a box of Capri Sun juice. After a bit of research, Sarych registered the MLA with the TerraCycle program. “I knew this was a fundraiser that our school could benefit from,” he said. “It helps the environment, and it engages the students in a positive community activity.” Sarych started the project last winter and slowly introduced the plan to his co-workers. In the months that followed he brought the program up to full speed. Students and staff collect candy wrappers, cheese packaging, used printer cartridges, coffee bags, empty drink pouches, old cell phones, cereal bags and a long list of other would-be trash. They box the recyclables up and send them to TerraCycle and receive between 2 cents and a dollar an item. TerraCycle also pays the shipping costs. The material collected by TerraCycle is turned into garbage cans, school supplies, playground equipment, flower pots, back packs, and a wide variety of other items. Students and staff are bringing packaging from home as well as collecting them at the school. “Two cents an item doesn’t sound like a lot,” Sarych said. “But it adds up quickly.” To date the program has brought in about $200 dollars and kept 61 boxes of waste out of the local landfills. “Throwing away a candy wrapper is like throwing away money,” Sarych said. For more information go to TerraCycle.net, or call Tim Sarych at (320) 532-6848. Photos by Rob Passons.

BARRINGTON — Don’t throw away all of you your candy wrappers or Capri Suns. Terracycle them. Local elementary schools like Primrose, Hampden Meadows School, and Bristol’s Guiteras School are all a part of the Terracycle program. They are collecting CapriSun containers and candy wrappers. What are they going to do with them you may ask? Well, they are going to donate them to Terracycle (a national company that recycles things that are hard to recycle) so they can be made into new things like bags, backpacks, boxes, pencil boxes, and notebooks. They are also going to get 2 cents back for their school. So If every one in your school has one CapriSun every day for a year you will have about 1,980 dollars for your school! For more information email ejvanleer@gmail.com or go to Terracycle.net.

Costumes and candy make for a sweet Halloween. Afterward, however, the clutter and litter haunt closets and landfills for years. Wrap up this spooky season with the help of the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher, 900 Loggerhead Road, Kure Beach, by donating gently used costumes and empty candy wrappers. The Aquarium will collect those ninja suits, princess dresses and all other spooky get-ups through Nov. 30. Next fall, families can select new costumes from the donated items as part of a free costume exchange. Also, instead of trashing empty candy wrappers, drop them off at the Aquarium. The Aquarium collects empty wrappers throughout the year and sends them to a recycling partner, TerraCycle, as part of its focus on conservation. This partnership raises money for conservation efforts at the Aquarium.

TerraCycle has turned juice boxes into purses and is looking to recycle diapers. But today, the Trenton company is focused on collecting trash and helping a Bucks County school make money.

The economy has undoubtedly impacted every aspect of American life, including the way people spend their money. The shrinking retail sales may be a tell-all about a reduction in consumerism — whether by necessity or because it’s trendy — but there’s one other number that may indicate America’s love for “stuff” is changing. For the past few years, the amount of garbage generated nationwide has been decreasing: According to the Environmental Protection Agency, between 2007 and 2009 (the last year available), municipal solid waste (a.k.a. garbage) generation went from 255 million tons to 243 million. Still, considering that amount is double that of four or five decades ago, it’s easy to understand the efforts to promote and encourage recycling. Consumers, of course, are complying, recovering about 34 percent of materials nationwide (from less than 10 percent 30 years ago). But while paper recycling has become second nature (and 64 percent of it is diverted from the landfill), a growing number of people are looking for ways to recycle various other things that usually go into the trash, from candy wrappers and Ziplock bags to potato chip bags and Elmer’s glue sticks.