"I like nature and stuff," said sixth-grader Cody Weisensale. "I want to make the world a better place." Classmate Delanie Dennis said, "If no one recycled, the world wouldn't be very pretty." Earthkeepers collect and sort recyclables from all over the school. Several days a week, they sacrifice recess to count and box up empty chip bags, Lunchable trays and Capri Sun pouches. Each box of 500 like items brings the school $10 from TerraCycle, a company that turns the waste into park benches, back packs, flower pots and more.

I posted in my first blog about some of the cool jobs and internships I have been fortunate to have. I wanted to take the time and talk about my most previous internship in the business development department at TerraCycle this past summer. I moved out to Trenton, New Jersey to work for a company that is simply eliminating the idea of waste. CEO Tom Szaky, from his book Revolution in a Bottle, says it best that “in looking at waste as an entirely modern, man-made idea, I stopped viewing garbage as garbage and instead slowly started to see it as a commodity.” The private company’s goal is to engage consumers and communities in the collection of non-recyclable waste, things that you ordinarily cannot throw away into a recycling bin. Through a collection process, or Brigade™, consumers can send in their used products to TerraCycle where they will transform the waste into eco-products. They also incentivize the collections by rewarding consumers with $0.02 per item to a charity or school of their choice. This is able to close an environmental loop for brand’s consumers, and help them realize that there is an end of life decision for all the products they are using. From corks, cameras, cell phones, any sort of packaging, pre-consumer waste, shoes, diapers, energy bars, pens to yogurt containers, TerraCycle handles them all. They are very proud to say that they have not yet encountered a form of waste in which they can’t handle. Also, the whole Trenton office is upcycled featured conference rooms made from bottle walls and reclaimed doors used for desks (the office was voted the “Coolest in America.”). Some of their more successful products can be found in Walmart and the Home Depot like the Capri Sun backpack and the garbage cans made from 1,500 Frito-Lay bags. Next time you’re at the grocery store, be sure to look at the back of a Capri Sun box!

The designers at TerraCycle refer to themselves as “junkies.” The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders may not recognize job addiction, but after speaking with the company’s resident design junkies, it is not hard to imagine withdrawal symptoms on days off. Not simply because the Trenton, New Jersey-based recycling and upcycling firm does eco-friendly work, but because so much of what they do, or fail to do, is an exercise in recombinant aesthetics. It was hard not to picture a modern art piece dangling in the Guggenheim when Brad Sherman, one of TerraCycle’s design junkies, told me about a chandelier he made of used eyeglasses. Although this project, and his bamboo-like picture frames made of cigarette butts, never made it to market, it says something about a company when even its failures can be mistaken for art.

Though the tactics for reaching the audiences often needs to be different, it’s still most effective and efficient – you reach the mostpeople – when you combine audiences and catch everyone at once. The hard part, of course, is finding this middle ground. What will inspire and impact children and adults alike, without confusing one group or boring the other. At TerraCycle, we’ve found that one of the best ways to do this is to put green lessons where they’re least expected. For us, this means retailers and playgrounds. By placing bins in stores like Old Navy and by partnering with stores such as Target and Walmart, which cater to both adults and children, we can catch the attention of both groups. Many people don’t expect to see backpacks made from Capri Sun drink pouches on the shelves – drink pouches belong in the food section! These items often get an equal gasp from parents and children alike, albeit for likely differing reasons.

“People are missing out on valuable resources because they’re overlooking what in front of them and writing it off because that’s the old habit.” Tom Szaky Terra Cycle, Inc. CEO MO.com is proud to partner with The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC): The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the country’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The Y.E.C promotes entrepreneurship as a solution to youth unemployment and underemployment and provides its members with access to tools, mentorship, and resources that support each stage of a business’s development and growth. TerraCycle, Inc. is an international upcycling company that takes difficult to recycle packaging and turns it into affordable, eco-friendly products. Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, founded it in 2001. TerraCycle is the world’s leader in the collection and reuse of non-recyclable post-consumer waste. TerraCycle works with over 30 major brands in the U.S. (and in a growing number of other countries) to collect used packaging and products (Frito-Lay chip bags, Mars candy wrappers, Capri Sun and Honest Kids juice pouches, pens, toothbrushes, etc.) that would otherwise be destined for landfills. TerraCycle repurposes that waste into new eco-friendly materials and products that are available online and through major retailers. The waste is collected through TerraCycle’s Brigade programs, which are free fundraisers that pay schools and non-profits for every piece of waste they collect and return.

Terracycle is one of my favorite companies of all times and Tom Szaky is another living proof that one person can make a huge impact in the world, Terracycle has deviated over 2 billion units of trash from going to landfills, it has donated over $2 million dollars to schools and it has over 23 million people collecting trash! Here's an inspiring interview with Tom, a popular blogger at Treehugger and the face of the National Geographic show Garbage Moguls. What did you want to be when you were a kid? I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. When I was 14, I started a web site design company called Flyte Design, and my interest in entrepreneurship continued to grow from there.

When it comes to recycling, Sharon Sullivan, an educational assistant at Maude Wilkins Elementary School, takes it one step further. She recycles what was once considered unrecyclable and, at the same time, turns a profit for the school. “The students recycle their juice boxes and donate the money to charities,” said Interim Principal Wanda Pichardo. Sullivan, who has been employed at the school for 16 years, said she got the idea after reading about TerraCycle in a magazine.

On 9/16/11, I had a fun and informative interview with Albe Zakes.  He is the VP of Media Relations for TerraCycle. He has been with TerraCycle since 2006. That same year, INC magazine ran a story calling TerraCycle the “coolest little start-up in America”. They are still very cool and now exemplify a company that’s known for being at the   forefront of waste reduction worldwide! When it comes to sustainability – they get it in a BIG way.

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.

Vicky Peck has a nickname some might find not so flattering, but she loves it when kids call her the "juice pouch lady" because it means they're thinking about recycling. And getting kids to think about recycling is the first step. In two years, Ms. Peck and the students of Douglas Elementary School have recycled more than 55,000 drink pouches through a nationwide recycling program run by TerraCycle Inc. In return, the school has received $1,105 for enrichment programs, and the students have caught the recycling bug. "They took to it unbelievably quickly, and this is why the whole thing should start with children," says Ms. Peck. "My thing was to get recycling started because you would be amazed how many kids don't do recycling at home." Douglas Elementary is one of about 45,000 schools nationwide - and one of about 360 schools in Massachusetts - that collect drink pouches for recycling by TerraCycle Inc. of Trenton, N.J. Drink pouches, made of aluminum and plastic, were just thrown away until TerraCycle began recycling them in 2007 in partnership with Honest Tea, maker of Honest Kids juice drink pouches. Then things really took off in 2008 when TerraCycle joined up with Kraft Foods to recycle its popular Capri Sun pouches, along with other drink pouches. Since then, more than 100 billion pouches have been collected in the U.S. and "upcycled," or made into, backpacks, pencil cases, lunch bags and binders, plastic lumber and paving stones. As an incentive, TerraCycle donates 2 cents per pouch to a nonprofit selected by each school's recycling team. Often the recipient is the parent/teacher organization at the collecting school. So far, TerraCycle has given $2.8 million to schools and charities, with one top-earning school earning $4,000. "The whole community can get involved and help out the local school," says Stacey Cusack, TerraCycle public relations manager. At Sutton Elementary, money raised from juice pouches bought a digital video camera for use in classrooms and will soon purchase some fun equipment for gym class. Since 2009, the school has collected more than 43,000 pouches and earned $848. The money is great, but volunteers say the other big benefit is teaching kids about recycling. Eight-year-old Sydney Leanna of Sturbridge has become a recycling advocate at Burgess Elementary, reminding kids to recycle drink pouches instead of throwing them away. Every day after school, her mom finds a couple of drink pouches in Sydney's backpack that the third-grader found here and there. For her mother, collecting drink pouches is a convenient way to fit in school volunteering around her full-time work schedule. Kim Leanna and six other moms, along with their kids, rotate recycling duty, donning gloves to empty the cafeteria bin once a week and pack the pouches in boxes for mailing. Since 2009, they have collected more than 70,000 pouches and earned $1,398 for a school playground fund. Kim Leanna hopes to teach the fifth- and sixth-grade students how to run the drink pouch recycling program, freeing up her and other moms to introduce new recycling programs for yogurt and personal care containers at the school. "It's good exposure for kids because they're learning about recycling and upcycling," says Ms. Leanna. Rutland teacher Ericka Humphrey and her second-grade students were in the middle of an environmental science unit when she first heard about TerraCycle's drink pouch recycling program two years ago. It was a perfect way to mesh what the kids were learning with a hands-on project. "I told my students we can help the earth and help the school at the same time," says Ms. Humphrey. She and the students at Naquag Elementary and Glenwood Elementary have collected about 62,700 pouches to earn $1,256 for the schools since 2009. "I think it shows that a small step really does add up." Ms. Peck of Douglas says getting started was pretty easy: She decorated a trash can with juice pouches and made a poster for the cafeteria, then she visited each classroom to drop off a collection bucket and explain the plan to the kids. To bring it full circle, she showed the kids the backpacks and pencil cases that are made from the used juice pouches. At first, TerraCycle used the juice pouches as-is to make usable items such as backpacks. Now some of the pouches are shredded and melted to make pellets to be made into other items such as paving stones and plastic lumber, says Ms. Cusack. Recycling all types of drink pouches - not just Capri Sun - is TerraCycle's most popular recycling project, but the company also has school programs to collect other hard-to-recycle types of packaging, such as string cheese wrappers and Lunchables and GoGo SqueeZ apple sauce packages. TerraCycle, which began in 2001 selling plant food made from worm waste, now collects 40 different kinds of used packaging for upcycling, including chip bags and candy wrappers. TerraCycle has tried to make it easier for volunteers by no longer requiring that the drink pouches be cleaned and counted before mailing - that was messy and a lot of work. Nowadays, volunteers just need to squeeze out all the liquid and remove the straws before filling a box to mail to the New Jersey company using a prepaid mailing label. "It's definitely a labor of love - and to imagine we've saved all this from a landfill," says Ms. Peck. "It's a good thing."