According to Heather Seeburger, Portage Central Elementary parent and program initiator, the school's largest effort toward helping the planet has been collecting items for Terracycle, a small company based in New Jersey that takes items such as Capri Sun pouches, chip bags, pens, and candy wrappers, and turns them into a usable product. With each item collected, the school receives two cents.

Morton suggested going through the national TerraCycle recycling program, which diverts billions of pieces of garbage from landfills and incinerators by either recycling or “upcycling” them into new products. For example, juice pouches can be turned into pencil cases and potato chip bags can be made into trash cans.

Have you heard about Upcycle It!?  Sustainable Westford's innovative program collects non-recyclables such as chip bags, granola bar wrappers, cookie wrappers and more to keep them out of the waste stream. These items are sent to a company called TerraCycle. TerraCycle donates two cents per item and pays for shipping.  These items are then upcycled into new products such as backpacks, tote bags, and flower pots.

Personal care and beauty products account for one-third of all landfill waste, spurring Garnier to up the ante of its sustainability program and partner with TerraCycle, Inc. to collect millions of pieces of packaging waste from the L’Oreal owned brand of hair care, skin care, and cosmetic lines.

A company named Terracycle collects various and sundry kinds of waste to divert it from the landfill,  to use it in new ways, and to try and make a buck.

It's Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holday that is celebrated throughout the globe, and this Cinco de Mayo this cooking mama is going green. Thats right folks we are talking about recycling and going green in our kitchens. We are familiar with the normal recyclables, but what happens to the products that are considered non-recyclable? It is sent to a landfill and sits and can release toxic gases into the air, and poison our water supply. I had the oppertunity to speak with Megan Yarnell from Terracycle, one of the fastest growing green companies in the world. Terracycle has created a nationwide recycling programs for those items that were previously non-recyclable. They upcycle or recycle products like Lay's potato chip bags, Capri Sun drink pouches, and Mission Foods tortilla bags, they turn them into plastic pelets, or re-purpose them.

TerraCycle is a company I know Mamas will get behind.  We're all doing our part to become a bit greener.  as much as we can I think.  Whether it's packing our kids lunches in more earth friendly packaging or handing down our kids clothes.  We're doing what we can.

One of the activities that many of Michigan Green Schools participate in is the recycling of used packaging and products such as chip bags, candy wrappers and juice pouches. The waste is collected through TerraCycle's Brigade program (www.terracycle.net), which pays the schools and nonprofits for their efforts and then recycles the material into cool products.

Debbie Kozell works with TerraCycle to turn garbage into useful products, and to raise money for the Home and School Association.

That scale that Looptworks' Hamlin is aiming for is already happening on the post-consumer end of the upcycling market. If Etsy is considered the epicenter of do-it-yourself upcycling, then New Jersey-based TerraCycle takes on that same function in mass upcycling. The company turns actual garbage into hundreds of products, like Oreo wrapper backpacks and bicycle chain picture frames. With a large-scale collection infrastructure developed over the past 10 years, TerraCycle nabs about 1 billion pieces of garbage every quarter that ultimately end up on the shelves of big-box retailers like Target and The Home Depot.