With Fourth of July fast approaching San Franciscans are gearing up for BBQ’s, beach picnics, family, friends and festivities. Summer parties create great memories, but they can also create a lot of left over trash. While you try your best to separate, recycle and even compost, what can you do with all that difficult-to-recycle food packaging, like Frito-Lay chip bags, Kraft Singles cheese packaging, Capri Sun drink pouches, and plastic cups? This year, there is a better option for dealing with these tricky “non-recyclables.” You can send them, for free, to TerraCycle. TerraCycle is one of the fastest growing green comapanies in the world. It was founded in 2001 by Tom Szaky, then a 20-year-old Princeton freshman. He began by producing organic fertilizer, liquid worm poop, and packaging it for sale in used soda bottles. Today, TerraCycle’s expanded mission is to eliminate the idea of waste all together.

As residents prepare for Fourth of July and other summer parties, they have a new option for their non-recyclable trash: send it for free to TerraCycle to be, indeed, recycled. TerraCycle collects difficult-to-recycle food packaging such as Frito-Lay chip bags, Kraft Singles cheese packaging, Scott paper towel and napkin wrapping, and Solo plastic cups. Anyone can send in their used products and packaging to be upcycled and recycled. For every piece of packaging that TerraCycle receives, participants are awarded with two points, which can be put toward buying a specific charity gift or converted to money and donated to a charity of the participant’s choice.

Manlius (WSYR-TV) – On the final day of school, students at Fayetteville Elementary learned an important lesson – one that will likely stay with them for the rest of their lives. On Thursday, the students collected a year’s worth of used juice boxes – thousands of them – and sent them off to Terracycle, a company that specializes in getting new uses from trash. At Terracycle, old juice pouches might become a messenger bag, Skittles wrappers might become a kite, or Starburst packing, a boom box. Teacher Matt Titus got the ball rolling with one class and now the entire school is participating. And the kids are aware that they’re making a difference.

About: TerraCycle’s purpose is to eliminate the idea of waste. We do this by creating national recycling systems for the previously non-recyclable. The process starts by offering collection programs (many of them free) to collect your waste and then convert the collected waste into a wide range of products and materials. With over 14 million people collecting waste in 11 countries together we have diverted billions of pieces of waste that are either upcycled or recycled into over 1,500 various products available at major retailers ranging from Walmart to Whole Foods Market. Our hope is to eliminate the idea of waste by creating collection and solution systems for anything that today ends up in our trash. The amount of trash that we generate is frightening. Recycling ‘the usuals’ is a good thing. TerraCycle goes beyond the usual and gives new life to waste that would fill up our landfills. There are a couple of ways that you can help. You can send them your waste, so that it can be upcycled or recycled. And you can purchase the fun products that they create from waste. TerraCycle makes lunch boxes out of brightly colored Kool-Aid Jammers and Capri Sun drink pouches. Billions (yes, billions!) of drink pouches end up in landfills every year. TerraCycle can’t take care of all of them, but they upcycle tons (literally, tons) of them each year. They also donate 2 cents to charity for each pouch that they collect. The lunch box is made well and sturdy enough to carry a heavy lunch. The colors vary depending upon what type of drink pouch is used. Mine is made from grape flavored Kool-Aid Jammers and has a coordinating purple zipper and trim. The lunch box is fun to carry and serves as a good reminder to make positive steps to take care of the earth. HOW TO CONNECT – You can like TerraCycle on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. PRIZE – TerraCycle would like to give a Kool-Aid Jammers lunch box to 1 of you (ARV $15) Here’s what you need to do to enter to win …. ***MANDATORY ENTRY: Leave a comment – just say something nice *** Optional Bonus Entries: (must do mandatory entry first- post a separate comment for each bonus entry) * Like  Sweeps4Bloggers on Facebook * Subscribe to Sweeps4Bloggers by email (green sidebar button) * Subscribe to Sweeps4Bloggers by reader (Orange sidebar button) * Post my button on your blog and comment with the link * Follow Sweeps4Bloggers on Twitter * Tweet about the giveaway and comment with the link to your tweet (you may TWEET DAILY for 1 bonus entry each day) * Post on your blog/website about the giveaway and comment with the link (5 entries, leave 5 comments) * Check out  Giveaways4Prizes– add one of your giveaways to a linky or look at what’s listed (2 entries, leave 2 comments) * Like TerraCycle on Facebook * Follow TerraCycle on Twitter * Enter the Bratz DVD giveaway * Enter another current Sweeps4Bloggers giveaway and let me know which one you entered (enter as many as you’d like, but only 1 bonus entry) Giveaway ends June 26, 2011 at 8pm Pacific Time. Giveaway is open for residents of the US only. No purchase necessary – void where prohibited by law. Winner will have 48 hours to respond to notification with shipping info and claim prize – if no response, another winner will be chosen . Subject to the official rules. Disclaimer/Disclosure: Sample and prize provided by the giveaway sponsor.

Sunset Primary Mom Helping The Environment, One Pouch At A Time With the help of the TerraCycle program, Kelly Tilton has helped to make students understand the value of recycling. One of the things she has done has set up a bin at the school in which students can recycle their drink pouches. Kelly Tilton is a busy woman. Aside from being a mom and a business owner, the University Place woman is also doing her part to help the environment. And as she tells the story, she "just kind of stumbled upon" her contributions last year. Two of Tilton's four children  - Ben, 9, and Rachel, 6 - attend Sunset Primary, where their mom is a member of the PTA. She buys them the Honest Kids brand of fruit drinks that come in pouches. One day last year, she saw on one of the packages that the pouches could be recycled. In fact, through the TerraCycle program, one pouch could earn her 2 cents. (Click here to find out more about TerraCycle) As a member of the Sunset PTA, Tilton figured she could use the pouch-recycling program as a fundraiser for the group. Sure, it was only a few cents for every pouch, but over time and with plenty of kids participating, the money could help pay for things like field trip costs. So, Tilton and the rest of the Sunset PTA got permission to place a bin in the school's cafeteria where kids could throw away, er, recycle their pouches. That's right, everything from Capri Suns to Honest Kids to Minute Maids. The group put out the bin in May last year. So far, kids have recycled more than 5,000 drink pouches, which has earned the group $100. "It's just been amazing," Tilton says. "The kids, they did it all year, even if we're not in school." The program is great for students, she says, because it teaches them the value of recycling non-traditional recyclables like plastic cartons and newspapers. Also, the pouches are recycled in such a manner that students can actually get a sense that their recyclables are being used. For instance, Tilton has a handbag that is made out of recycled Capri Sun pouches. There's no sign that she'll be stopping anytime soon, either. She has another son, James, 4, who's about to start at Sunset, and Sarah, who turns 2 years old next month, is on her way there. "I'm going to be stuck doing this forever," she jokes, "which is a good thing."

One school that's already recycling is now taking the extra step to reduce even more waste. News 4's Kristen Cornett goes to visit to see how they're going green.

One group of Oconee County elementary school students has managed to put a dent in that mountain of foil and plastic one lunch period at a time. Fifth-graders at Malcom Bridge Elementary School have collected about 20,000 juice pouches, the kind used by Capri Sun and Kool-Aid, since September. They can't be recycled locally, but the students send them to an out-of-town company that pays them 2 cents a bag for their trouble.

I love TerraCycle!  From turning Capri Sun and other drink pouches into purses to recycling Solo plastic cups, TerraCycle makes it fun and easy to recycle items that are normally difficult to recycle. Now TerraCycle has teamed up with Old Navy for their Flip-Flop Brigade!   Old flip-flops can be recycled and upcycled into all sorts of things, although they usually wind up in landfills.   It's super easy to donate your old flip-flops.  It doesn't matter if they're dirty, broken, or very worn -- all you have to do is stop by an Old Navy store and drop them in a box near the front of the store.  After the program is over, Old Navy will send the boxes off to TerraCycle, where they will turn them into playgrounds!  A few schools or community organizations who participate in TerraCycle Brigades will be the recipients of these upcycled playgrounds.

Hill's students, who are part of an elective "Go Green" classroom also broadcasted newscasts and gave presentations about ways to help keep the environment healthy - an ongoing theme in many corners of the Dexter school district. "All of our schools recycle and celebrate Earth Day every day," Hill said. "My classes have been recycling for years. This year we added plastic containers and Capri Sun containers. We belong to the TerraCycle program." Hill's students have also conducted clean-up efforts at various district school grounds removing and recycling plastic, paper, cardboard and aluminum cans wherever they could be found. The students have also installed bins to recycle fruit and vegetable refuse and collected 400 coats, mittens and hats for families in need.

Visit a New Jersey school as they talk about their recycling efforts and all the packaging they send to TerraCycle.