Since 2001, TerraCycle has risen from a dorm-room start-up selling worm poop-based plant food into a internationally-known growth business.   Its focus: providing consumer packaged goods companies and retailers with cause marketing programs and nonprofits with fundraising opportunities. TerraCycle has over 70,000 schools and charities collecting waste globally and they have earned collectively almost 4 million dollars just by recycling more! Whether you work for a large company, a start-up or an NGO, you'll pick up valuable lessons from Global VP Albe Zakes based on Terracyle's decade of turning "waste into wonder".

LONG BEACH - It's the end of lunchtime at Longfellow Elementary School and students are lining up behind purple recycling bins to sort their trash. The bins are divided into six categories: energy bar wrappers, chip bags, plastic bags, city recycling, juice pouches and cookie wrappers. "I like that we recycle in our school because it's good for the planet," said 6-year-old Jenna Jacob, as she recycled her cookie wrapper. For students at Longfellow Elementary at 3800 Olive Ave. in North Long Beach, recycling is more than a lunchtime activity; it's a way of life, said Principal Laurie Murrin. "It's become part our campus culture," she said.

LONG BEACH - It's the end of lunchtime at Longfellow Elementary School and students are lining up behind purple recycling bins to sort their trash. The bins are divided into six categories: energy bar wrappers, chip bags, plastic bags, city recycling, juice pouches and cookie wrappers. "I like that we recycle in our school because it's good for the planet," said 6-year-old Jenna Jacob, as she recycled her cookie wrapper. For students at Longfellow Elementary at 3800 Olive Ave. in North Long Beach, recycling is more than a lunchtime activity; it's a way of life, said Principal Laurie Murrin. "It's become part our campus culture," she said.

LONG BEACH - It's the end of lunchtime at Longfellow Elementary School and students are lining up behind purple recycling bins to sort their trash. The bins are divided into six categories: energy bar wrappers, chip bags, plastic bags, city recycling, juice pouches and cookie wrappers. "I like that we recycle in our school because it's good for the planet," said 6-year-old Jenna Jacob, as she recycled her cookie wrapper. For students at Longfellow Elementary at 3800 Olive Ave. in North Long Beach, recycling is more than a lunchtime activity; it's a way of life, said Principal Laurie Murrin. "It's become part our campus culture," she said.

LONG BEACH - It's the end of lunchtime at Longfellow Elementary School and students are lining up behind purple recycling bins to sort their trash. The bins are divided into six categories: energy bar wrappers, chip bags, plastic bags, city recycling, juice pouches and cookie wrappers. "I like that we recycle in our school because it's good for the planet," said 6-year-old Jenna Jacob, as she recycled her cookie wrapper. For students at Longfellow Elementary at 3800 Olive Ave. in North Long Beach, recycling is more than a lunchtime activity; it's a way of life, said Principal Laurie Murrin. "It's become part our campus culture," she said.

As an environmental company, TerraCycle has a unique relationship with Earth Day. Celebrating our environment and spreading awareness and activism is wonderful, but we also like to remind people that the Earth needs to be taken care of every day. For the past few years, we’ve had an array of special events around Earth Day. In 2009, we launched our mini-series on National Geographic – Garbage Moguls – and in 2010, we had a Walmart Hotspot with sixty TerraCycle products were displayed in Walmart stores, right next to the products that they used to be! Think, drink pouch backpacks next to boxes of Capri Sun. Last year, 2011, we had the Old Navy Flip-Flop Replay in which we collected used flip flops at Old Navy stores across the country during the Earth Month. That same month, in partnership with Office Depot, we collected used pens and writing instruments at their retail locations.

As the student manager of his school's recycling effort, James West, 11, has had to teach some Deep Springs Elementary teachers a thing or two. A dead mouse, for example, is not suitable for the recycling bin. "I had to tell them that they can't put it in there," said the fifth-grader, recalling one of his more unusual discoveries in his recycling career. But as James and other Deep Springs students have learned, juice pouches, plastic cups, tape dispensers and even spray nozzles may be recycled with some special effort, in addition to the more typical kinds of plastic thrown into recycling bins.

As a proactive way to help the environment and also raise money for charity, Saint Xavier University students are being highly encouraged to take part in the university’s terracycling efforts. Although the terracycling program has already had a strong presence at the university, one of the program’s main organizers— Mercy Students for Peace and Justice (MSPJ)—would like SXU students to become more informed on what exactly terracycling is. “It’s a program created to recycle things that normally aren’t recyclable,” said Rachael Dean, president of MSPJ, as she briefly summed up the main purpose ofterracycling. Besides mentioning the program’s main mission, Dean also further commented on what occurs to the items that are collected through theterracycling bins. “We collect all these items and we send them to the company. The company then sorts through it and they make things out of what we gave them,” said Dean. The terracycling program, as Dean said, creates different items from many of the things that have been put into its bins. Several of the items manufactured include pouches, backpacks, totes and even notebooks.

I discovered the site TerraCycle through information that was on my gourd organic fruit juice. It said that the packaging could be recycled and the TerraCycle website report stated. Curious as I am, so I went to make a turn and I found their concept quite surprising! TerraCycle proposes to harvest some of the daily waste (yogurt, pencils, printer cartridges, packaging for chips or cakes ...) and send them for free via UPS.United States simply drop the box in a UPS box or in a shop in France and the UPS will look directly at you! ;) In return for this you collect points which are used to receiving gifts eco-friendly or to make donations paid to schools and charities. TerraCycle uses these waste products to create other, totally recyclable, you've already had to perceive in some shops, I'm sure! You have to register on the site and then enroll in "brigades" that correspond to the waste that is to be harvested. This system exists for different countries, not only for the United States: France, Canada, Germany, Spain ... To see the types of products that can retrieve and send, just choose the country in the small bar "Select your country" at the top of the homepage. However, I note a few minor gripes ... For some countries there are very few brands that participate in the experiment. In France for example, only offered to collect the Bic pens. But hey when you do the bottom of the barrel, which is recovered all the old pens that no longer works, it's been enough to send! :) And for the United States, where many brands are available, his little bio: only two brigades of 29 porposant retrieve food packaging! Luckily it was the good because they are two brands that we consume at home ;) But I still adheres to the concept and I will participate by sending my yoghurt pots and gourds my juices!

Despite having once famously complained that recycling is bullshit—nothing more than a sham to shift responsibility from producer to consumer—Lloyd was nevertheless impressed by Terracycle's sponsored waste upcycling programs which encourage companies to take responsibility for the waste stream created by their products. We've following Terracycle pretty closely ever since, even inviting founder Tom Szaky to guest post from time-to-time on his unique take on recycling and waste. But usually the best way to understand a new concept is simply to see it in action. And this latest video (complete with German subtitles) from Terracycle is about as accessible an introduction as I can think of, explaining how Terracycle's partnership with juice maker Capri-Sonne diverts traditionally non-recyclable foil and plastic juice cartons from landfill and turns them into valuable consumer products. From the relatively low energy footprint of creating fabrics out of existing materials, through the waste minimization, to the reconnection between producer and the waste they generate, there is plenty for your average TreeHugger to like here. But it's worth noting that the benefits go way beyond green—just think of all the schools and community organization earning much needed revenue; or the number of jobs being created in such a labor-intensive and resource efficient business model. Once again, we are reminded that the "green economy as elitism" meme is nothing but hot air coming from the old guard. This is what the new economy will look like. And I like it.