Packing up drink pouches is a sticky, messy chore, but you do it if you want to earn extra money for your school. That’s why Cynthia Bowen and her student volunteers box and ship about 2,000 pouches each month to Trenton, N.J., where they’re recycled into a variety of items, including tote bags and pencil cases. Bowen, a parent volunteer at Ocean Lakes Elementary School, began the program this year and, so far, the school has earned $408 for the drink pouches they send to TerraCycle, a company that specializes in hard-to-recycle items

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.

Juice Bags: Ordinary juice bags are a combination of aluminum and plastic polymer which can’t be recycled. But don’t toss them in the trash – gather them up and send them to your favorite charity. Here’s the deal with that: TerraCycle will donate 2 cents for every Honest Kids, Capri Sun and Kool-Aid drink bag – and and they’ll donate a penny for every other brand. Plus they provide free shipping. TerraCycle turns old juice bags and pouches into colorful purses, totes and pencil cases. See them yourself at Walgreens, Target or teracycle.net.

Juice Bags: Unfortunately, common juice bags are a combination of plastic polymer and aluminum, which isn’t recyclable. But don’t throw them away – collect them and send them to your favorite charity. TerraCycle will donate 2 cents for every Capri Sun, Kool-Aid and Honest Kids drink pouch – and a penny for every other brand. Not only that, they provide free shipping. TerraCycle turns old juice bags and pouches into hip and colorful purses, totes and pencil cases. Check them out yourself at Target and Walgreens, or at teracycle.net.

Juice Bags: Made of a combination of plastic polymer and aluminum, common juice bags aren’t recyclable. But don’t throw them in the garbage – collect them and mail them to your favorite charity. TerraCycle will donate 2 cents each for every Capri Sun, Kool-Aid and Honest Kids drink bag – and they’ll also donate a penny for any other brand. Not only that, they will provide free shipping. TerraCycle transforms old juice bags and pouches into colorful hip purses, totes and even pencil cases. See them for yourself at most Target stores, Walgreens, or at teracycle.net.

Juice Bags: Unfortunately, common juice bags are a combination of plastic polymer and aluminum, which isn’t recyclable. But don’t throw them away – collect them and send them to your favorite charity. TerraCycle will donate 2 cents for every Capri Sun, Kool-Aid and Honest Kids drink pouch – and a penny for every other brand. Not only that, they provide free shipping. TerraCycle turns old juice bags and pouches into hip and colorful purses, totes and pencil cases. Check them out yourself at Target and Walgreens, or at teracycle.net.

The Student Environmental Association (SEA) at Pinecrest High School is launching a new countywide recycling program to dispose of chip bags and Capri Sun pouches. The program is an extension of the SEA's earlier recycling initiatives, which sought to collect recyclable goods other than the obvious paper and plastic products. "We were always recycling paper and plastic," says SEA president Aayushi Patel, "but we wanted to know what else we could do. We found out about this really cool company called Terracycle that turns plastic chip bags into purses, bags and asphalt, and we thought, 'Well, everyone eats chips.'" The SEA had a competition to see which classroom could collect the most chip bags. "In April and May alone, we collected more than 1,000 chip bags," says Patel. "We were hoping to implement this in the community, and see if more people could help out with the recycling and the good cause." Terracycle is a New Jersey-based private company that manufactures consumer products from recycled material. Established in 2001 by college freshmen, it has become one of the fastest growing green businesses in the country. The company receives recyclables from nearly 30 million people in more than 20 countries and manufactures more than 1,500 products, which are available in such major retailers as Walmart and Whole Foods. Partnering with Terracycle is only the latest of the SEA's endeavors to promote environmental sustainability. Other initiatives include raising money to preserve the rainforest, auditing teachers at Pinecrest to make sure they weren't wasting energy, and the "Do One Thing" initiative, in which students were made to pledge one lifestyle change that would promote sustainability. What sets this recycling program apart, however, is that it will be open to the entire community rather than merely the school. "It'd be great if the community could help out for a good cause like this," says Patel. "Recycling is important because all the stuff we throw away right now is going to landfills. There's only so much land that you can throw trash in. Every month you have so much trash; just think about it building up over time. When we don't have enough land to throw away trash, what happens? Recycling is a good way to change that, to change trash into something useful." For more information on how to get involved with the SEA's recycling program, email Aayushi Patel at aayushipatel45 @gmail.com, or contact the SEA at pinecrestsea@gmail.com.

A lot of schools in Southwest Virginia are are teaching recycling but Huddleston Elementary is taking it to a whole new level. The Bedford County school is small with 220 students but those students are recycling and trying to save the planet on a much bigger scale. They're taking part in a nationwide program called TerraCycle Brigades. TerraCycle turns what they recycle, or "upcycle" into tote bags, lunch boxes or watering cans. And they don't just collect your typical water bottles or boxes. "We moved to chip bags and cookie wrappers and writing utensils and glue sticks because those are products that I thought we're going to have," said teacher Amy Mallow. "Our kids ever day at lunch have capri suns and chips and cookies, that's easy for us and as a school, glue products, the glue packaging and writing utensils." Part of what makes Huddleston Elementary so successful is this is really a community effort as well. They tell everyone they encounter. Teachers say they don't mind asking for or bringing trash in from events to recycle. Kids also take the message home so they can do more recycling. "At my house now we get to recycle those kinds of things when we're done with our stuff at our house I can bring it here and recycle it," said 5th grader Hannah Nichols. They've recycled more than 64,000 pieces of waste, according to TerraCycle. For all their effort, Huddleston Elementary earned almost $1300.

There are a wide and creative variety of these sorts of partnerships with both commercial companies and government agencies -- strategies that produce value for both sides, rather than for only one. I'm reminded of TerraCycle, for example, an impressive company that tries to outsmart waste by paying schools who teach kids to recycle things like Capri Sun drink pouches. The kids learn to recycle waste, the school makes a little extra spending money, and TerraCycle uses waste items to make nifty handbags, purses and other consumer items to sell. Sounds like the beginnings of a virtuous cycle, to me.

Cumming Elementary deserves congratulations for the amount of waste they are keeping out of the local landfill. The school is one of the top collectors of hard-to-recycle waste in TerraCycle's nationwide Brigade programs. The students collect Capri Sun drink pouches, Frito-Lay chip bags, cookie wrappers and Elmer's glue containers among several other items, which earns them money for charity and keeps the garbage out of the local landfill. Cumming Elementary has earned more than $2,620 from recycling items that would otherwise be thrown away, which translates to approximately 130,806 units of waste. TerraCycle turns the collected packaging into new products such as tote bags, recycling bins, watering cans and backpacks. The school is one of 90,000 schools and community groups across the globe collecting almost 50 different kinds of products and packaging that TerraCycle accepts. In addition to participating in the TerraCycle Brigades, Cumming Elementary also recycles cans and bottles through the Dream Machine Recycle Rally, a national program co-sponsored by PepsiCo that aims to raise awareness of the importance of recycling among K-12 students. Schools can earn rewards and compete for prizes. Interested parties in either the TerraCycle Brigade programs or the Dream Machine Recycle Rally can visit www.terracycle.com to sign up.